Chapter two: Intervention and unfinished business.

It was eight o'clock in the morning, and Kiba was an hour early for his team's scheduled training, so he decided to find Renee. With Akamaru beside him, they jumped into the trees and headed towards the familiar scents. Kiba stopped at a clearing's edge, and looked down to find, not just Saz, Jake and Renee, but Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto as well. To Kiba, it looked like Renee and Sasuke were about to spar. Renee studied Sasuke carefully to see what she could figure out, but stopped anything from happening just yet, by holding up a finger. Kiba was a little confused. Renee reached into her kunai pouch and pulled one out. Kiba couldn't understand why nothing was happening yet, till a kunai struck the tree by his head. Stunned, he pulled it out. "You can come out Kiba, you can watch from down here." Kiba smiled as he jumped down from his perch in the tree, and calmly walked over to stand with Jake and Saz. Renee gave Kiba a wink, before directing her attention back to Sasuke. Renee got into a fighting stance. She had her right leg back and left leg forward for balance, her left arm was straight out, held at arms length kinda like lee in his good guy pose with his right hand up. Her right arm was above her head, bent at the elbow, with a kunai in her hand ready for anything. Sasuke smirked and disappeared. Renee smiled, but her stance didn't falter. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate. In her mind, she saw the clearing, her brother, Saz, Kiba, Naruto, and Sakura who were watching, and finally Sasuke to her left. To everyone else, it looked like nothing was happening, and that Renee was a goner. But to everyone's surprise, Renee turned her body and her kunai met with Sasuke's. Sasuke smirked, "not bad." Naruto and Sakura gasped. "No way, how'd she know he was there?" Jake and Saz were smiling, while Kiba was amazed. For the next five minutes, the air was filled with the sound of clashing kunai's. after blocking the latest slash from sasuke, a voice from the woods froze everyone in the clearing. "Well isn't this interesting, my two favourite subjects training." the sound of his voice sent chills across Renee's skin and caused her to release her hold on her kunai. She slowly turned her head at the sound of his voice. "Orochimaru."

Orochimaru looked at every single person there, but his interest lied with the two who were fighting. "My old teammates student, and my subordinate. Don't you think it's time for you to come back where you belong?" Orochimaru's view of Renee was blocked by Saz and Jake, while Kiba stood behind Renee, his hand on her waist in comfort. Naruto and Sakura had moved to stand beside Sasuke. Orochimaru laughed. "So to get to my teammates student, I'd have to go through you? Well then I'll deal with you after I deal with my own student." Orochimaru turned his gaze to Sasuke and started forward, but a figure had jumped down in front of Sasuke. "For that you'll have to go through me." Orochimaru showed a little bit of surprise at the person standing in front of him. Sasuke was more surprised then angry to see him. "Itachi?" Itachi turned his head slightly and looked at his younger brother. "Sasuke, I'm not here to do any harm to you." he returned his gaze to Orochimaru, but not before Sasuke and Sakura noticed the brand new hitai-ate on Itachi's forehead. "My, my. The murderer has been excepted back into Konoha, and back to protect little brother? What brought this change?" Itachi smirked the oh so famous Uchiha smirk. "At first we had different goals, but now I think we have some what the same." he looked back to Sasuke "what do you say little brother, will you fight by my side to kill Orochimaru, for the good of Konoha?" Sasuke's eyes held surprise but also a hint of suspicion. "Is this some kind of trick?" Itachi shook his head. "Nope I've just gotten back from the Hokage's office after asking for forgiveness of my crimes, unfortunately I have some community service coming up, but she accepted that all I want to do and should have done from the start, instead off getting obsessed with power, was to look after and protect what's important to me. You." Sasuke was still stunned but Itachi's word was confirmed by Tsunade. "Sasuke, he's telling the truth." everyone turned to see Tsunade above them, sitting on a tree limb, just watching. "Sasuke, what do you think?" Sasuke turned back to Itachi and nodded. "Alright. For the good of Konoha, but after I'll show you how far I've come." Itachi smiled. "Good, it's been too long."

"How touching, the last two Uchiha's are reunited. Well this should be fun." Itachi and Sasuke turned back to Orochimaru. "Kiba, watch over Renee. Naruto, protect and take care of Sakura. And no complaints Sakura. I want to know you're safe." "I know Sasuke- kun." Itachi snickered. "I see you didn't waste any time getting your self a girl." Sasuke glared at his brother. "Yea, well normally I wouldn't admit stuff like that cause I was afraid you'd kill them too." Itachi's smirk disappeared. "I'll explain that later. For now we got bigger problems." both Uchiha's turned to Orochimaru, but being Orochimaru, he decided to disappoint his opponents. "Sorry to have to do this, although It'd be so much fun, I have more pressing matters to attend to." to everyone's amazement, Orochimaru disappeared, but not before fixing his eyes on Renee. "I'll be back for you." Kiba didn't relax his hold until he was positive Orochimaru was gone. Renee was in really bad shape. Memories kept flooding her mind and not allowing her to concentrate. One memory in particular kept coming back.

Flashback

"Congratulations Renee. You've officially completed your training. " Renee looked up at her sensei with a big smile on her face and happiness coursing through out her body. "Really Tsunade - Sensei?" Tsunade nodded. "You can go now and have fun." Renee's smile got bigger and before she took off, she remembered to bow respectfully to Tsunade, and ran for her home. 'I did it.' she thought to herself as she ran down the crowded streets of Konoha. She ran to her families compound, and continued to run till she arrived at her families main house. "Mom, dad, Chris, Jake, I did it! I've finished my training." Renee stopped inside the living room, where her parents should've been, only to find it empty. She turned and ran up the stairs, to the bedrooms and stopped outside her older brother Chris' room. Containing her excitement, she knocked politely on the door and waited for an answer. "Yea?" Renee opened the door and slowly but excitedly walked over to her brother and hugged him. Surprised, Chris turned to his younger sister, and asked "Renee what's this for?" Renee pulled back slightly and allowed Chris to see the excitement on her face and In her bright sparkling blue eyes. "I officially passed. I'm finished my training with Tsunade - sensei!" Chris smiled. "That's great." Renee looked around the room, some of her excitement turned to sadness. Noticing the slight change, Chris pulled her close. "Why so glum? You were just happy a second ago." Renee turned back. "I was hoping to tell everyone, but I forgot mom, and dad are gone. I wish they could've been here to share my happiness." Chris smiled "don't worry, I'm sure they're very proud, and they're smiling down on you." that's when Jake chose that moment to enter the room. Renee turned in Chris' arms to face her younger brother. "Jake guess what?" Jake liking guessing games, perked up. "What?" Renee motioned him forward, once close enough, she let it out. "I'm finished my training. Now I get to be like Chris." before Jake could say a word, Renee had pulled him into the hug, between Renee and Chris. An hour after telling them, Jake was busy in the training room upstairs, practicing with his kunai's, while Chris, and Renee were downstairs sparring, in the courtyard. A knock on the door stopped the spar. A heavy breathing Chris went to answer with a slightly confused Renee following. 'Who would come to our door at a time like this?' Chris had a bad feeling stir in his gut, when he sensed the unfamiliar chakra on the other side of the door. He turned to look at Renee, before he slowly opened the door, only to come face to face with the one he'd been told so much about. "Orochimaru!" Chris took a few steps back from the door, his direction was to block his sister from Orochimaru. Before he could take another step, his body felt heavy. He knew he could do nothing at this point to save himself or his siblings. Orochimaru entered the house, and looked around. "NO!" Chris gasped. The snake man ignored the struggling shinobi, and looked around the room till his eyes landed on the teen girl he'd come looking for. Renee felt the intensity of his gaze and fear shot like a bullet through her heart. She tried to step back, but realized she couldn't move. It wasn't her fear that was holding her in place, but something that man did. His eyes were creepy. He must have used a paralysis jutsu, that she couldn't get out of. She turned her eyes from the man, to her struggling brother. Orochimaru noticed the change in direction, and also turned his eyes to his current captive. He took out a kunai and pointed it at Chris' heart and was overjoyed at the fear that was growing in both the boy's and the girl's eyes. He directed his attention to Chris. "I'm not here for you, I'd keep you alive if I didn't believe you'd try to stop me." Chris being scared managed to ask. "What do you want?" Orochimaru laughed. "Why, the girl!" Chris felt his chest tighten at the prospect of losing his sister. "No, I won't let you take her!" again creepy eyes laughed. "How can you possibly stop me?" his eyes shifted to Renee. "You're Tsunade's apprentice or subordinate? Or was, correct?" he chuckled when he didn't get an answer. "Don't worry, I already know who you are Renee. Now you'll watch your brother die. " "NO!"Renee exclaimed and watched in horror as Orochimaru stabbed the kunai into Chris' chest and through his heart, killing him. Renee screamed at the sight of her dead brother crumbling to the ground. She began to get dizzy, and felt sick, then she passed out, only to wake up three days later in a dark lonely room, not knowing how she got there, or the mishap of three days ago.

End Flashback.

Tears began to silently run down her face and land on Kiba's arm. Startled at the sudden wetness, he pulled her closer. "Renee, what's wrong?" Renee wiped away the streaks the tears left, only to have more tears travel down her face. She whispered "seeing him again, brought the memories back again, especially the most painful one." Kiba leaned in close. "Which is?" Renee's eyes continued to create tears, "Chris dying in front of my eyes." Sasuke clenched his fists, 'Orochimaru must be a coward, if he won't stay and fight!' Sasuke was deep in his thoughts, when he felt warmth encircle his clenched fist. He turned his head to the right and saw Sakura with her hand wrapped around his and fear evident in her eyes. Sasuke unclenched the hand she was holding, and entwined his fingers with hers. Itachi's voice brought his head back around to stare at his brother. "So he'll be back? But not for you? What's so important about this girl anyway?" no one had an answer. But one. "Only I could tell you that." Tsunade exclaimed as she jumped down from the tree limb she was sitting on, and landed beside Renee. "There's two reasons. One she used to be my apprentice, well actually a student of mine, and two she has a special and very rare bloodline limit, as well as a very dangerous jutsu. Although I can't explain to you about her dangerous jutsu, I can, however, tell you about her bloodline limit. She has a form of second sight." Sasuke and Itachi looked at each other, then back at Tsunade. Sasuke asked "what kind of second sight?" Renee looked up at Tsunade before looking at her brother. "It's like the sharingan." 'That can't be, how can it be like the Sharingan?'

Sasuke thought to himself. Itachi seemed interested at this point and listened closely. "You already know the basics of the Sharingan, and how you can predict an opponents movements, copy a jutsu, but not a bloodline limit, you can see where an attack is coming from, you can torture them in a illusionary jutsu for long periods of time, in the victims mind at least, but to others, only a few minutes pass, your Sharingan can be used with or with out other jutsu's. Example, your chidori, Sasuke. But Renee's can see things you couldn't even comprehend. Renee's is called Crystalis. Meaning seeing beyond. Her dangerous jutsu is called Fireflight, which means white winged flaming maiden. Anyway, back to the Crystalis, once activated, she can see any person within a two mile radius, and it's not something to underestimate. Sasuke already did, although she didn't have it activated just yet. There are other things about the Crystalis that I can not explain, but that and the fireflight are the main reasons why Orochimaru wants her, and because I trained her." Itachi looked carefully at Renee. 'I see what Tsunade is talking about. Although I've never heard about this before, I wouldn't mind seeing it.' Naruto, understanding what Tsunade had said, was still confused about something she'd said. "Ba-chan, before you said it was Rare, what did you mean by that?" Tsunade looked at Naruto and realized he was serious. "I say it's rare, because it is. In the hyuuga and Uchiha clans, everyone eventually gets the Sharingan and the Byakugan. But in the Hai families, not everyone get's it. So far the only ones, I know of, that have received these are Renee, her older brother Chris had it, and Jake will also have it. He shows signs now that he will. Renee's parents never had the Crystalis, or the Fireflight. Not even their parents. That's why it's rare." "Tsunade, if Renee is willing, could we see this dangerous Jutsu, this fireflight? Just so that if I'm in a battle along side her, I'd know when to get out of the way?" Tsunade looked at the oldest Uchiha.

"I understand what you're saying, and I say yea, but it's not my decision to make." Tsunade looked down at her former student, and everyone understood. "Renee - san?" Renee looked up into the eyes of the oldest Uchiha. "Yes Itachi- san?" Itachi bowed his head in respect and asked "would you be kind and allow us the honour of seeing this jutsu, so in time of battle, we'd be able to help out?" no one realized how scared she really was, but Kiba. Jake turned to his sister. "Renee nee- chan, could you? Even I haven't seen it, I want to know what you'll soon teach me." Itachi looked at Jake. 'nee-chan?' his eyes shifted to Sasuke with guilt clearly written in them, only to go unnoticed except by Sakura. 'He feels bad for doing what he did? I hope Sasuke can realize that!'Sakura thought to herself. Renee looked into her brother's excited eyes, then up to Tsunade- sensei and nodded. Renee walked away from her group of friends, and approached the woods, where Orochimaru had once stood. Renee readied herself. She closed her eyes, and clasped her hands together. Deep down she didn't want to do this, but they want to know for safety purposes. 'Alright time to concentrate. Deep breath, just remember to save a little chakra, so I can still stand.' "Fireflight!" Chakra sprouted out from her back like wings, her arms spread to the sides, and she lifted up into the air, her face, looking up, eyes still closed in concentration. "Tsunade- sama, she can fly?" Naruto exclaimed. Tsunade nodded. "It's a special part of Fireflight. It's one of the main reasons why it had it's name. Like the chidori, fireflight works in unison with Crystalis." thirty feet above the trees, Renee opened her eyes and activated the Crystalis. "Crystalis." her eyes turned to a bright blue, and she was able to see the area she wanted to demonstrate in, was not occupied. Forming the necessary seals, Renee began to mould chakra to her hands and realised it towards the area, the chakra surrounded the area, and the area in between exploded. The chakra acting as a barrier, so no other area but the targeted spot received any damage.

Renee looked down to see everyone standing on the top of a tree, starring at the demolished area. Renee closed her eyes and Crystalis was deactivated. She slowly lowered herself to the ground and waited till everyone came down from the tree tops. Tsunade continued to explain. "The chakra surrounding the area does two things. It prevents the explosion from affecting anywhere but the area chosen, and two, prevents enemies from escaping. As for allies, the chakra seeks out enemies only. So if you're caught inside the barrier, you escape, while the enemy can't, and dies instantly." Itachi studied Renee carefully. "Tsunade, that's why Crystalis, is used in unison correct? To pick enemies from allies?" again Tsunade nodded. "Yes, Crystalis is able to separate friend from foe, how? Even I don't understand." Renee answered for her. "Crystalis seeks out a few things to determine friend or foe. One is familiar chakra, and that is pretty simple. The chakra inside people is different. If you put a konoha ninja against a sound ninja, they would both have different chakra signatures. The konoha ninja's signature would , to my eyes be in the shape of the village they're from, a leaf. The sound ninja's would be in the shape of a musical note. Same with the other hidden villages ninjas. the other way it does it, is by seeking out the good in a person's soul. If you have to intent to kill, you might be taken as an enemy, if it detects an intent to kill, it will look deeper to see what is written in your soul. Your main life source tells the truth no matter what your mind thinks. Example, Itachi's soul was tainted, but finally coming back and being able to make up for what he did, so his soul is healing, and is becoming untainted. Sasuke, your soul holds great misery, but it shows signs of confusion and love. The misery will soon be over come. Naruto's soul is very difficult to understand. You've had rough times, but you pulled through Being a ninja and meeting new friends helped your soul from becoming lost, not even kyuubi could change that."

Naruto's face held shock and confusion. Renee continued. "Sakura, your's was on the verge of breaking into minuscule pieces, when you thought you'd lost Sasuke, getting him back, started the healing." Sakura was shocked. "How did you know all that, and not once have you looked at since you showed us your jutsu?" Sasuke was deep in thought about what Renee said of Sakura's soul. Itachi smiled. Kiba corrected Sakura. "That's not entirely true Sakura, she did look at us, we were just to busy looking at the destruction to notice." Naruto examined Renee closely. "So those two Jutsu's are why Orochimaru is after you?" Renee nodded. "Yes." she fixed her eyes upon Sasuke. "But not just me. That cursed seal on Sasuke's neck is a tell tale sign, he wants Sasuke back." Sasuke's head shot up and his free hand, unknown to him, reached up and covered the topic of interest. "how'd you...?" Renee smiled. "There's one thing I didn't mention when I talked about your soul. Part of it is in conflict. One wants to continue doing good, while the part closest to the seal, wants to take over and gain more power. Fortunately, the seal is losing strength. Hatred no longer controls the seals power. Love does." she was faced by a very confusion Sasuke. " since you've found love, hatred has no place in your good side, but there's still a smidgin of it in the cursed half. Plus I was unfortunately with Orochimaru for a few years already." Sasuke began to understand once Renee's eyes left him and landed on Sakura. Renee hesitantly returned her gaze to Sasuke. "Unfortunately, Orochimaru now has two things to benefit your return to him, that is if he can before his next body switch." All eyes, held confusion and curiosity. Naruto clenched his fists, "which is?" Renee bowed her head and looked to the ground.

" well, he can't depend on Sasuke's hatred for Itachi no longer, but... he now knows about his feelings for Sakura, that being the first, and the second being, the cursed seal would in turn be far more powerful fighting for love, then hate. As to how he'd use that to his advantage, I don't know." she turned to Sasuke. "You've been along side, Orochimaru, what or how do you think he'd do it?" Sasuke thought hard for a few minutes then said. "Well first, he could kidnap Sakura, and try to make another deal, me for her, kill her and say he knows who did it and help me get revenge by sticking by his side, or keep her after kidnapping her and force me to side with him, or he'd kill her, thus I'd be stuck." Renee smiled. Tsunade responded. "Sounds like things Orochimaru would do. I wouldn't put it past him to try all three." Sasuke's eyes turned to Sharingan "but, I'd never allow that to happen. Not as long as I'm alive." Itachi smirked. "Smart choice. But if you die, who'd protect Sakura from Orochimaru?" Itachi watched as disbelief crossed Sasuke's face. "Then it would be you or Naruto, but Sakura is strong enough to handle herself." he paused and looked at Sakura "if anything happened to me, I know she'll be safe. No matter what." Renee felt pain course through her side. She wrapped her arm around her body, trying to still the pain. 'Showing then the fireflight, and Crystalis wasn't a good idea. I still haven't recovered fully from the last fight against Orochimaru, and I think a wound reopened.' Renee slowly backed up till she was leaning up against a tree, then slumped down to the ground. "RENEE!" Jake exclaimed. He ran over to his sister and kneeled beside her. "Are you okay?" Renee whispered. "Yup." Tsunade moved to the other side of Renee and asked. " what's wrong?" with out looking up, Renee explained. "One of my wounds must have reopened during the strain of fireflight. You know how much energy and Chakra's needed. It's too much stress." Tsunade, motioned Sakura closer, Tsunade's gaze shifted between her former student and her current apprentice, as she explained. "I'm going to do something I don't usually do."

Renee and Sakura's faces showed confusion and disbelief. "What's that?" "I'm going to fully heal this wound, but since the others are no problem, I'll let them heal on there own." Renee nodded as did Sakura. Tsunade was a little surprised by their lack of response, but made the necessary hand seals to begin the healing. Tsunade placed her chakra filled hand over Renee's wound, and began to attach the skin and activate the natural healing. Once finished, Tsunade gave Renee a food pill to replenish the lost blood. Jake began to breath normally once Renee was healed. During the excitement, Kiba failed to notice he still held Renee's Kunai, and he'd totally missed training with Shino and Hinata. Kiba walked over to Renee. "I almost forgot." he waited till she looked up at him. "Here's your kunai back!" Renee laughed and smiled. "Thanks. Sorry I almost hit you." KIba shrugged. "It's okay." "Hey Kiba, you missed training!" Kiba turned to see his two companions. Shino with his hands in his pockets, and HInata with her arms in front of her chest, and her two index fingers flexing against each other. Kiba reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Ah... yeah.. About that..I ..ah.." "Yap,yap." Kiba couldn't find a good enough excuse, so he just told the truth. "Akamaru and I were and hour early for today's training, so we decided to go for a walk, when we got here, Sasuke and Renee were ready to spar, when Orochimaru showed up." he noticed the surprise on both faces, and fear on Hinata's. Course Hinata's fear was replaced by blushes as Naruto came over to her and put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side. "After a long boring chit-chat, Itachi and Tsunade showed up. Orochimaru ran away scared." Shino's eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "If so, then how come we sensed a large amount of chakra from this area?" Kiba looked over his shoulder at Renee. "We had a little demonstration of the Hai families rare bloodline limit." he turned back around to face his teammates, and pointed to the direction of the demonstration site. He motioned Shino and Hinata to follow and jumped into the tree's for a better view.

Kiba stood on a branch once again over looking the devastation. Shino and Hinata were stunned at the massive destruction in front of them. Hinata gasped. 'Who could have such powerful chakra to cause this?' She didn't need Byakugan in order to see the Chakra. Shino's bugs were bouncing everywhere inside his body, as they sensed the powerful chakra, still emanating from the area. Kiba lead the decent and landed two feet away from Renee, Jake and Tsunade-sama, as Tsunade finished healing Renee's worst wound. Jake felt relief flood through him. He really didn't want to lose another sibling, and end up on his own once again. Jake looked around the clearing at the people around him, and he was drawn to the Uchiha brothers, standing beside each other, not knowing what to say or how to act. Jake got up off the ground and wandered close to the very silent twosome. He stood in front of them not saying a word. It took a while before Sasuke's eyes landed on Jake, and Itachi to look down, to see a boy only two years younger the his own brother. Both Uchiha's asked the same thing. "Nani?" Startled, the famous onyx eyes of the two met, then returned to Jake. Jake placed his right arm around his waist, and rested his left elbow on his right arm with his left hand at his chin in wonder. "Are you two really related?" Sasuke frowned, while Itachi smirked. Sakura realizing Jake wouldn't get a good enough answer, decided to help them out. Taking Sasuke's arm in her other hand, considering they were still holding hands, said "yea they're really brothers. But it's a long painful story. Probably not a good time to hear it. Maybe later." Jake nodded, but stayed in his spot, drifting away in thought. 'I wonder what would've happened between Chris and I if he was still alive?'

Renee looked up when she felt a hand on her arm, and found herself looking into Kiba's eyes. They showed great concern. "You alright?" "Yup, good as new." Tsunade stood and walked over to Naruto, who was busy watching Sasuke, Sakura and Itachi talk about something which in turn had Sasuke fuming mad and trying to get at Itachi, itachi smirking at Sasuke's reaction, and Sakura trying to calm Sasuke down, with little success, leaving Kiba and Renee alone to talk. :I'm sorry you missed your training." Kiba shrugged. "Hey, it's okay. I got to learn something about you. Actually a few things." Renee smiled as she nodded. "Yea I guess you did. But I don't know much about you and Akamaru." she watched as Kiba's cheeks turned pink, and his hand went to the back of his neck, and began rubbing it. "Well what do you want to know?"