I woke up to the most annoying sight of my window open, letting in a heavy breeze that ruined my morning. I snuggled closer into my blankets, attempting to gain as much warmth as possible while I tried to go back to sleep. I remembered my mother, my actual mother, once lulling me to sleep when I was six, singing me songs and telling me stories. Of course, that all ended when my eldest sister died and I was forced away from all that childish habit.

It never worked. Despite everything, and even after death, I still heard her song when I closed my eyes. My alarm, however, had no respect for my own tranquility as it blared out in a siren of noise. I opened my eye, sitting up and feeling a bit of my slightly curly hair stuck in between my eyepatch and my closed lids. I dislodged it with a groan, glancing at the time and slowly remembering the mission for today.

The very same mission that my sensei hadn't thought to tell us anything about sooner. I didn't even know what to pack since he was such a lazy douche.

I stood up, doing my morning stretches before packing just about all I could fit in my travel bag. I was going to pack a sealing scroll, but it was much harder to have proper Chakra control in the morning.

I glanced towards the window, glancing down at the far distance to the ground. Despite that, the journey down was much faster than the stairs. Thanks to my own morning lessons, my punctuality had suffered greatly, but I didn't much care since Hisanobu-sensei had pissed me off enough for a life time.

With one last longing look towards my bed, I jumped out of the window. Now, between life and death, I forced Chakra into my legs to break my fall. I felt my heart rate sky rocket as my skin paled. I stuck the landing like a cat before calmly walking towards the village gates.

For some stupid reason, only when I put myself in dangerous situations did my Chakra control not fail me. Thanks to my own poisonous ki, however, with each and every time I used it, I began to look more and more like a corpse. I could still remember the way Izana Kira's major Jutsus would allow me to nearly see through her skin to her skeleton.

There was something seriously wrong with me. Something poisonous and I could feel it deep within me, spreading. Something monstrous that I had to control, even if it killed me.

I barely noticed it had started raining by the time I got to the village gates where Shisui and Itachi waited with Hisanobu nowhere in sight. Despite the fact that I was late, the sensei was even later. I sighed from my distance when I saw Shisui grin and rush towards me.

"Nice to see you finally rolled out of bed, Tsu-chan," he said, resting his wet arm against my shoulder. I gave the cloudy sky my annoyance as I looked towards the rain clouds for judgement, hoping they'd strike Shisui down with lightning so I wouldn't have to. Unfortunately, they never did.

"I didn't roll out of bed. I glided," I answered, shaking him off. Of course, I glided with a hard thud to the ground, but he didn't need to know that.

"Hisanobu was the one who said to get here at 9 am sharp. I don't get that guy," Shisui muttered, placing his elbow right back against my shoulder. I tried to use my very annoyed body language to prove that I didn't need both eyes to strangle him to death.

"What even is our mission?" I asked, shaking his arm off once more. Itachi, who had been adjusting his umbrella to suit the raging wind, glanced towards me.

"Something to do with delivering supplies to a neighboring village," Itachi answered, and I slightly frowned.

"How do you even know that?" Shisui asked and Itachi raised his brow.

"I asked Hisanobu-sensei the moment we found out about the mission," Itachi answered as if we were children.

"Oh," Shisui replied, while I calmly walked towards Itachi's umbrella to stand under it and hopefully get away from Shisui. "I'm so betrayed. You would rather be next to 'tachi?"

"I'd rather be dry," I replied with a blank stare just as Hisanobu walked up with an arm full of sealing scrolls and a large duffel bag of supplies.

"How are you this fine morning?" Hisanobu asked, and for once his normal attire of a straw hat fit the current weather.

"You're late," I announced and Itachi snorted.

"You've been here for only five minutes. What do you have to complain about?" Itachi asked, and I was slightly surprised by his blatant sass.

"Tsukasa, it's always good to practice punctuality," Hisanobu scolded and I felt my face scrunch up in annoyance.

"Sensei, practice what you preach," Shisui retorted in my defense.

Hisanobu grinned, handing me the giant duffel bag to carry and the sealing scrolls for Itachi and Shisui. He then handed them the other two back packs that he had strapped on each arm and passed them to Itachi and Shisui. I obviously got the heaviest one, which was slightly annoying.

"In my defense, I just got over the worst flu. You should have seen my son. His poop was toxic," Hisanobu stated with a nonchalant grin, reminding me of the poison we had slipped him.

"To much information, sensei," Shisui said as Itachi and I made a knowing glance of remembrance from our mutual misdeed.

"Cool. You are all here," said an incoming voice of a woman dressed in a tight fitting kimono. Over her head was a small umbrella, covering her hair. I noticed the intricate silk of her clothes and the jewels in her hair. She was basically just asking for highway men to rob our shit.

"What's with the wanna be princess?" I asked and Hisanobu let out a slight gasp, as if what I said was offensive.

"Tsu-Tsu, be polite to the client," the teacher ordered and I rolled my eye, glancing towards all the crap I had to carry for the long journey.

"Sorry," I said in an unenthusiastic tone as I tightened the bag of crap around my back, wondering why it couldn't have been in a sealing scroll.

"Think of it as training, kids. Can't always take the easy way out and sealing scrolls can be unreliable. One splatter of blood can easily ruin it," Hisanobu reminded us, but my mind was already on digging through one of my pouches for my snack. I began walking towards the village gates, not really caring about the teacher's next lecture in favor of my protein bar.

If he said anything important and relevant to the mission, I had no way to know. Shisui followed my steps, matching them and placing his arm around my shoulders. "Kasa, I'm hurt that you didn't bring enough to share with the group," he commented just as I finished my snack. I continued chewing, brushing off his arm and walking faster.

"Bite me," I said, taking out another protein bar just for petty reasons and began to eat it, ignoring the hurt expression on Shisui's face just as he turned to Itachi.

"Itachi, Kasa's being mean," Shisui told him and I tossed a piece of my protein bar at his face, hitting him right in the eye with crumbs.

He made a groaning sound, attempting to get the stray pieces out of his eye. Hisanobu, who was having a chat with the princess looking girl by the name of Hanakoto. "Tsukasa, no throwing things except for kunai and love."

"You're right sensei," I said in a deadpan, taking out a kunai and watching Shisui pale.

"Sensei, Kasa isn't throwing love," he commented and Hisanobu glanced up with a bored shrug while Itachi walked ahead of all of us, being the only one with an umbrella.

"I should be more specific. Only throw kunai at enemies," Hisanobu ordered and I raised my brow.

"Oh, I am," I reminded him, tossing two kunai in Shisui's direction. He ducked, but hadn't realized I connected them to a wire, so I pulled it back and it slit open his cheek.

"I don't know what hurts worse, this cut or the betrayal," Shisui told me, cradling his cheek.

"I don't know how I feel about them being the ones to protect me," Hanakoto commented with a frown.

"Well, I'm here so never fear," Hisanobu assured her and I rolled my eye in disbelief of his cheesy comment. At the same time, I also continued rolling the wire carefully and placing it back into place into my bag.

"Somehow," Hanakoto gave the man a once over, examining his straw hat and the nonchalant smile. "That doesn't comfort me."

"Yeah and he didn't protect me from Tsu-chan," Shisui complained, covering his cheek with a bandaid. I scoffed, but continued walking.

"It's called tough love," Hisanobu replied, his ever present smile never once diminishing. It reminded me of Hikaru in that regards, nearly, since no one smiled as much as this man. However, Hikaru always had this calming presence that Hisanobu emitted. Not at first, because in the first year of knowing him, he was a whiny and weak bitch, but he grew up.

He would have died to protect his comrades, but when it counted, he failed and I failed him.

I barely noticed my hand was in a tight fist, and I noticed Itachi glancing over towards me with a lingering look to my hand. I carefully uncurled it and he looked away.

"I don't feel tough or loved," Shisui complained.

"It will kick in," Hisanobu assured him.

It was rotten luck to have him as my sensei. It was like the universe was having a laugh at me and I didn't like being the butt of the joke. It was debatable if I even had a sense of humor anymore.

"No one is ever on my side," Shisui complained with a bright grin that made my brow raise.

"So very true," I agreed, carefully rolling up the wire of my kunai.

葉 葉

I glanced around to make sure no one was watching before I slowly unwrapped the bandage that secured my right eye. Underneath was a long scar of nail markings. I glanced down at my reflection of it through the pond, and as I dusted my fingers over it, I visibly flinched. Without another thought towards all of it, I quickly picked out some of my healing ointment and rubbed it against the scars. I immediately felt an icy numbness settle over my face.

I never did like staring at my reflection for too long, which was why I had covered every single mirror in my apartment. I hated my silver eye and it was nothing like the shade my eyes used to be, having gotten most of my features from my mother. My actual mother. Now, I had nothing to remember that old life by, not even many memories of my childhood as it began to grow blurrier and blurrier with every passing year I spent here. If it weren't for the journal entries I kept as an account of my previous life, I likely wouldn't remember anything.

I began to wrap my face once more, only to freeze when I heard a distinct sound of tree branches cracking. I quickly stood, noticing Itachi come out from the cover of shade, only to immediately pause and halt in his path. I glanced towards him, standing straight as he took a step forward.

"Didn't mean to disturb you," he told me and I ran my gaze over him before nodding my head and moved to walk past him.

"I was finished," I told him, and right as I walked a step past him before quickly grabbed a kunai from the strap under my sleeve and went to strike him down.

He narrowly dodged, his brows twisted in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"You dodged," I murmured, kicking toward and watching as his arm quickly snapped up to defend himself from the force of it all. The flat part of my leg hit his forearm and I spun in mid air, swiping my other leg to slam my foot into his face. The heel of my flats pounded against his nose, and I landed onto the ground on all fours, swift to attack his ankled and watched as he fell down.

"You fucking bitch!" Itachi's voice changed and morphed into one that I didn't recognize and his body changed in a cloud of smoke into someone taller, and more buff. The stranger jumped up, holding his bleeding nose while I took off my cardigan, getting into position for his next attack. "How did you catch on so quick?"

"You walk like a fat ass. Try avoiding sticks and twigs to crunch. Then maybe you can be more like Itachi, and less like a clumsy shit," I told him, my face in a deadpan as I watched his grow red with growing rage.

"I'm going to gut you in every direction, you dumb cunt," he hissed out, wiping away the blood and almost immediately spilling out with Chakra. I heard a cling of metal from back at the camp ground, but wasn't too worried since Hisanobu was at least there.

"Gut me or talk me to death?" I asked, and without blinking I jumped out of the way of a well timed barrage of shuriken. I felt the killing intent so strongly in the air that I could nearly taste it's bitterness. I swiped to the left, dodging what appeared to be a poorly timed water Jutsu.

Fighting with one eye always had its set backs, one being the difficulty in seeing something coming out from the side. Usually, I could make up for it by honing my other senses. Before I could, however, the vibrant clap of thunder echoed in my eardrums, pounding against my skull. I jumped back, stepping in a puddle before feeling my mistake as a current of electricity shot through the water, creating ripples that I felt in every bone. My muscles froze, and I felt the prickling sensation erupt over every inch of my body.

I attempted, the moment before the shock, for my Chakra to shield me and maybe as Misaki I could have succeeded. However, as Tsukasa, the effect was abysmal if not non-existent. I fell down like a sack of rocks, my knees encased in the water as the buff man began to approach.

I attempted to scoot away, but my nerves were fried and my heart rate had quickened to the point where I could hear every beat. "Where's your clever little quips? Sass me." I tried to stand, but I fell right back down, watching carefully as he knelt down in front of me, performing a series of hand-signs that made my heartbeat skip. I groggily tried to slap his hand away, my vision beginning to blur, but he grabbed onto me and forced me to look into those deep and dark eyes that filled me to the brink with his stare.

"Shh," he told me, and the Chakra he emitted, I absorbed into myself until I was lost into a very powerful Genjutsu, shielded by the Mist that had begun to surround us. "Close your eyes."

I did as he instructed, much to my own dismay. I was lulled into the darkness. Before I could even attempt to break the Genjutsu, all of that pain faded away until it was a very distant throb.

葉 葉

"She's no where around," Itachi said, his Sharingan activated as he scanned the area around the river. He saw signs of a battle, but Tsukasa's location couldn't be discerned from scuffles of dirt and broken branches.

They had managed to defeat their enemies, and protect Hanakoto, but in the commotion the third member of the team was forgotten.

"Damn it," Shisui cursed, his palm digging into his eyes as he felt a pounding headache mix with worry. Itachi's face was expressionless, but judging from the way he tried to discern a trial from the fight, it was rather obvious that he wasn't completely unaffected.

"We won't get anywhere if we lose our heads," Hisanobu reminded the two, and for once, his smile was nowhere to be seen and was instead replaced with a rather worried grimace.

Hanakoto was perhaps the only one unconcerned. "I hate to be the reminder here, but I am feeling quite unsafe and would very much like to go home and take a bath."

"Our comrade is missing, and that's what you have to say," Shisui's eyes snapped over to the girl, whose expression still didn't change when she glanced down at the beds of her nails.

"That's the job," she reminded him. "If that wasn't what you figured was going to happen, then perhaps you should sell fruit on a stand. I hear it's much safer."

"That's enough," Hisanobu's voice was stern, stopping Shisui from doing something drastic to their client.

Shisui scoffed, turning on his heel to walk away for a moment calm himself down. Itachi, on the other hand, stayed behind. He turned towards his teacher, "What are we to do?"

"Find her," Hisanobu replied.

"I object to that," Hanakoto complained.

"You're more than welcome to continue home on your own, Hanakoto-sama," Itachi replied, and although his voice was polite, his tone was rather abrupt.

葉 葉

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with the oddest sight of unfamiliarity. It was a hand, casually pushing my hair back. It took me a moment longer to realize that the man was pulling it and my eye opened just in time to realize that he had slapped my face. It took another second to realize that my eye patch was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, the princess is awake," the man said, causing me to let out a slight wrinkle of my nose to show off my own rising temper. "I was wondering what was underneath all those bandages. You look like a horror show. Absolutely disgusting."

Hearing a quip about my eye sent a rather painful shock to my heart. I attempted to cover it with my bangs but he held my hair back in a tight hold, the cruel lines of his face and harsh glare of his eyes bore into my eyes. My arms were bound in tight ropes from behind me.

I made a silent promise to kick his face in, but his harsh glare kept me steady. "I'm serious. No wonder you cover that up. You look hideous."

"I lost my eye. What's your excuse for looking the way you do?" I asked, watching him snarl and use his tight grip on the roots of my hair to lift my body off the ground. Perhaps upsetting the person who held my life, quite literally, in their hands was not the best decision.

It was then that he smiled and kneed me in the gut. "I'm blown away. I've gone too easy on you for you to already be able to bite back like a vicious bitch."

I didn't make an expression, but that silence made him angrier. He tossed me onto the ground, the pain was bad, but I was careful to use this chance to begin to loosen the knot over my wrists. However, as incompetent as the man looked, he obviously knew how to tie a fucking knot.

"Okay. I would like you to tell me a couple things, just between us girls," he said, kneeling down next to me and for once I scoffed.

"Did you say 'us girls'?" I asked and he simpered before pressing his foot up against the side of my knee. The pain was intense, but just barely away from breaking. Being the age that I was, my body still wasn't capable of taking that amount of pain silently. I let out a shrill and pained cry.

"Let's try this again," he grabbed me by the roots of my hair and brought me up. "I'm going to ask you a couple questions. You are going to answer like a good little bitch. If you don't, I'll pull out a couple teeth and then boil them in front of you. Then I'll make you eat them."

The threat sounded very real and painful, but I didn't react much to anything anymore. As Misaki, I had been tortured a total of three times. Then again, that had been during a war that wrecked the country and had no signs of ending. This wasn't war, but it brought back memories that had begun to fade.

My eye ran over his many weapons strapped to his person as I felt of the tightness of the rope that locked my wrists together. My legs also had a rope tightening my knees together, but my legs were strong, with enough Chakra, I could severe them.

"Tell me about the abilities of your leader, the Hyuuga," he ordered.

"He loves strawberries," I replied. "Procrastinating. Smiling."

The man didn't have much of a sense of humor for my comment. I, in the meanwhile, was wondering just what kind of person Hanakoto was and what they were bringing that made actual Shinobi intercept.

"I'm going to gut you and then asset the strength of your team on my own," he said, taking out a katana from his side. I was prepared, snapping my right wrist in one motion. The pain was intense, but digging it out of the ropes was worse as I sent out a burst of unchanneled Chakra into my legs, breaking the ropes, simultaneously kicking the Shinobi straight in the groin.

I imagined it didn't hurt as greatly as being electrocuted, but he went down like a bag of bricks with a horrid curse as he fell. My brows were furrowed together, the pain in my wrist intense, before grabbing one of the knives on his person. I held it to his neck, digging my knee straight into his spine.

"You are made of tough stuff, kid," he said, and I slightly tilted my head. My wrist still hurt with shooting pain, sending my nerves on a frenzy. It was a lot of work to stop myself from cradling it.

"How about I gut you?" I suggested, my hand slightly shaking at the thought of killing. I had never done it before, not even during the war as Misaki. Medics simply didn't kill.

I wasn't a medic this time though. I wasn't Misaki. I was Tsukasa and Tsukasa was a murderer. I had memories to prove it. I had family in this world who were murderers. My father was a murderer. It was in my blood.

"Can't do it, little girl?" His voice grated my ears and I was wasting valuable seconds. I was giving him time to retaliate. I was wasting time. "Taking a life isn't easy, especially not for a weak cunt like-"

"Can you shut up? I'm having an epiphany," I stated, pressing on three distinct areas of his back before ending his whining with a last pressure point on the back of his neck. He dropped face first to the ground, but it took me seconds later to realize that my breathing had sky-rocketed. I couldn't breathe, yet my chest was shaking and I dropped the knife on his back. I stepped off his back and took a couple seconds away from him, still having trouble properly regulating my breathing.

I almost killed him.

When I looked down, my hands were covered in blood, but moments later the blood disappeared, making me wonder when this hallucination began or when it ended. I wanted to kill him. My hands shook with that unfamiliar excitement that I nearly let myself feel too strongly. If I took that last bit of pressure, something inside my chest would break. I would finally become Tsukasa. I would leave Misaki behind.

After that, I don't know what I would do or who I would become.

In the midst of my panic attack, I lost the ability to feel the pain of my broken wrist. However, that pain came shooting back in a quick blow. I sighed, and I was sitting on the passed out Shinobi's back, cradling my wrist when Shisui dashed inside the cave.

"Tsukasa! We're here to rescue you," Shisui said, and I gave him a solid deadpan.

"My hero," I said, unenthusiastic when Hisanobu walked inside next.

"Very nice work," Hisanobu commented, his Byakugan just barely inactivating and he let out a whistle. Hanakoto and Itachi walked inside next.

"We told you to scout," Itachi scolded, causing Shisui to scoff.

"Come on 'tachi. This is Tsu-chan we're talkin' about. I'm not about to scout when she could be dying," Shisui complained.

"Dying?" I was mildly offended, still hiding my broken wrist since I felt like them knowing would not do well for my pride.

"We found the kid. I would like to go home now," Hanakoto said, finally sparing a glance towards the man that I was currently sitting on as if he were a cushion. "Huh. It's Shunsho."

"You know him?" I asked, my brows furrowing.

"Yeah, he's a..." Hanakoto's nose wrinkled. "Let's call him a boyfriend."

"The plot thickens," Shisui said, suddenly immersed in the drama. Itachi couldn't look like he cared any less than he did right now, but he continued keeping up the polite act that I barely saw him drop.

"No offense, but you're boyfriend is a creepy, sexist, masochistic dick," I told her, standing up and hiding my arm behind my back. The pain was immense, but I doubted that it would go away any more than now if I did in fact treat it.

Hanakoto sent Shunsho another glance before shrugging. "I wasn't with him for his personality."

"This was a serious waste of time," I muttered.

"What's wrong with your wrist?" Itachi asked, appearing from behind me. I slightly jumped, but I came back from the surprise just as quickly.

"It's nothing," I replied, but Itachi's expression didn't change when he grabbed my arm and began to bandage and tend to the broken wrist. I sighed, glancing away and letting him.

"How?" Shisui asked, while Hisanobu was inspecting the ropes.

"Did you break your own wrist to loosen the ropes?" Hisanobu asked and I shrugged.

"All you had to do was wait a couple more minutes and we would have saved you," Shisui whined, obviously disappointed that he wasn't the hero.

"I am not the type who waits to be saved," I said, flinching when Itachi tightened the bandage. "I'd break my other wrist just to not have to hear you talk."

"Sensei, Tsu-Tsu is being rude," Shisui complained.

"Does no one care that I want to go home?" Hanakoto asked, and I shrugged.

"Not particularly," I retorted, not sure why that was priority over bandaging my wrist from her psycho boyfriend who I would later find out had us all attacked so he could swoop in and save Hanakoto and be the hero. Of course, he wanted us all to be dead so the experience was traumatic enough for Hanakoto and he could get laid.

"That was a weird mission," Shisui would say later on, and I, for once, agreed with him.

"I'm glad I have a wife and the dating world is far away from me," Hisanobu agreed, causing me to scoff as we walked along the path that led home. I scoffed.

"I don't know what that was, but I doubt it was dating."

Author's Note

It's been so long since I've uploaded. I hit a block since thinking about Itachi and the Uchiha clan in general just bums me out. I also legit can not understand the politics of Konoha. I don't get it.

"Oh shit guys, this entire clan has a fraction of people wanting to revolt."

"Fuck, let's just kill everyone. Kids too cause fuck kids."

"Good idea Bill."

Konoha sucks ass.