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Chapter 44

Akari slipped out of a window under cover of the Kiri-Woka no Jutsu, avoiding the civilians around her front door.

It had been a day since the attack, and Konoha was already healing. Homes were being repaired, or sometimes knocked down to be rebuilt entirely if they were too damaged or old, like excising a wound. And, despite all the work going on, some people still found the time to camp outside of the door in the hopes of asking her to bring one of their loved ones back to life.

Now, normally Akari would be alright with that, being able to say goodbye for one final time was nice. But when Konoha was still so broken from the attack, it took her considerable resolve to not go out there, grab them all, then drag them to the nearest building site so they could help. Even she wasn't exempt from this effort, she was just a little more focused than others.

Megami no Te was extremely useful for repairing foundations, but where she was more needed was in the hospital, putting her Iryo-nin mastery to good use healing the injured. She'd gotten some time to herself immediately after the attack to recover from, well, everything, but the Hokage had sent an ANBU to inform her that as soon as she was able, she was to go to the hospital to aid them, so after an hour of real-time sitting in her mindscape trying to keep ahold of herself and not sprint out of Konoha to go on a wild chase across the nations uncovering everything she could to find Naruto, she'd headed there and got to work.

During her work, she'd finally opened the notification on the side of the screen, her eyes skimming over the message telling her that she'd earned 27,380 experience for the enemies she'd fought, 25,000 for sealing Kokuo, and then 75,000 for sealing Gyuki. Since she didn't get the kill on Han, she didn't get experience, not even an assist. But since she was directly responsible for B's death, she got 150,000 experience there. This gained her three levels, the points for which were immediately placed into Vitality, Endurance and Luck, since she certainly didn't feel very lucky.

What's more though, she received a quest.

Quest Received.

Shadow of the Past.

Objectives:

Recover Naruto from his abductor.

Kill the man who took him.

Reward: 350,000 Experience, 4 Skill Points

Hidden Objectives:

?

The four stat points reward amused her, though it also made her freeze up when she considered the implications of such a...specific reward. She clasped a hand around the pendant at her throat, frowning. She'd never had to use the special ability it possessed, so she didn't mind losing it. What she did mind was her life being meddled with again. Her mind ticked over to thinking about the item she received, the one which supposedly could ensure that 273 could never mess with her again.

Attempting to use it simply made it shake and flash an angry red, so evidently 273 wasn't present or manipulating anything. But the fact that her quest has a specifically tailored reward made her suspicious. "Entity?" She probed, waiting a few seconds but receiving no response. "I swear if you're just not saying anything I'll find a way to come there and rip your ethereal balls off." She spoke in a growl.

Truth be told, she wasn't expecting a response, so when text appeared before her, she took a step back.

Akari. This shall be the last time I speak to you unless in great need. It was decided that upon unlocking of your world, we would remedy any existing issues, of which we are currently doing so, then would re-lock your world. Not quite as extreme, we will still be able to make changes, but not to the degree as before.

Frowning, Akari wrapped her right arm around the base of her left, feeling the point where her flesh and blood met her artificial arm. "So, what issues do you need to fix?" She gestured towards her arm. "Because honestly?...I don't need this fixed. My artificial hand is actually better in a lot of ways. Sure, I don't have any proper feeling there any more, but I can take blows there just fine. Even if my arm is shattered to a million bits, I can replace it. So, thanks for wanting to fix what shouldn't have happened, but I'm alright."

She felt the pendant around her throat vanish, that was another thing they had to remove, for sure.

Are you certain?

She shrugged. "Like I said, I don't need to have my arm replaced, I've already made a better alternative." She got the feeling her words didn't exactly please the Entity, he presumably wanted to tie everything up neatly as before by fixing what issues had appeared, give her a small peace offering, then leave. "Look, if you guys just leave me alone, that's fine by me. Do those custom quests, subtly push me towards a vague representation of canon, whatever, just...don't meddle with my life. I already have enough working away at my psyche."

I...see.

Akari pressed her lips together, frowning at the empty air. "Look, Entity, I know none of this was your fault. I just...I just don't want 273 to fuck around with my life again. I want to be able to win this fight, come home, and then just...keep going I guess, I don't want this to end yet."

...I shall grant that wish.

Blinking, Akari waited for the Entity to elaborate, but no words were forthcoming. She didn't expect another two notifications to appear. The first was...a pleasant surprise. It said that thanks to the fact that Minato, Hashirama and Tobirama were classified as her summons, she got the experience for their kills.

That meant another three levels worth of experience through all the kills and the experience they earned through assists which got given to her for helping Konoha Shinobi, which she decided to keep banked in case she wanted to boost a specific stat. She momentarily considered the fact that it was dumb to call her stats Skills, but it didn't matter that much, so she didn't bother thinking on it too much. Shaking her head, Akari got back to work, there were still people to save after all. The fact she got experience for each healed patient didn't slip her notice either.

What did slip her notice however was the second notification...

Sighing as she unlocked her door, Akari slipped through and closed it.

She brushed her hand against the inside wall to reactivate her seals and keep out anybody else, not that it'd matter if that man decided to pay her a visit. It kept civilians and shinobi out, so it was still worth the hassle. Since Minato still couldn't be summoned for another...five days as she checked her menu, Akari decided to test something. She called forth Madara, ignoring the fact she just burnt 25% of her reserves, they'd come back in like five minutes, not a big deal.

Leaning around, she observed him for every side, as well as letting Kurama get a good sense for how his Chakra felt. From what she could tell, the man who attacked her was nothing like the much more imposing Uchiha stood before her. She briefly considered trying to get answers from him by giving the spectre free will, but ruthlessly crushed that. This man could fight against Hashirama confidently, she wouldn't be able to defeat him alone.

She'd certainly be able to hold her own against him for a whole, level 118 was nothing to scoff at, plus with how much she was doing at the hospital, she was steadily raking in small amounts of experience. By the end of the week, she expected to tip over the edge into level 119. But he would almost certainly win at the end of a direct confrontation with Akari, simply due to his experience.

Akari was obscenely good thanks to the Game, but against a veteran of combat, a man who spent his entire life honing his skills, she would come up short eventually, even with her Sharingan aiding her. So instead, she ran her eyes over him, memorizing his body. his face, everything she could about him, and lining that image up with what she saw of 'Madara', as she didn't have a name to call him by.

If she'd observed him, her problems would have been fixed. Just another stupid mistake to add to her growing pile. Perhaps knowing who he was would tell them important information like how exactly he fought, how he could vanish into nothingness, a presence not even visible to her Sharingan, stuff that'd be incredibly important to know before a confrontation with him.

But the biggest mistake of them all...was that Akari had never thought to put her own brand of Hiraishin onto Naruto. For that little slip-up, Akari was honestly ready to punch herself in the face. The only problem with that was that it'd mean she wasn't spending time trying to get more experience, more levels, more strength so when she found that masked bastard, she could rip that damned mask off his face and look into his fucking eyes, at least once before he died.

For taking Naruto from her, there was no hell she wouldn't be willing to inflict on him.

With four days to go until she could summon Minato, Akari finally got a direct audience with Hiruzen.

She'd been asking the entire time, but with, well, everything that had happened, the man was a bit busy. After all...he'd already seen three Shinobi Wars, he likely hoped one would never happen again, or at least not while he was alive. Unfortunately for him, Kumo, Kiri and Iwa had each attacked without provocation. to not respond would call into question his ability to lead the village in the wake of such a vicious and sudden attack.

But, at least he'd picked up the slack, big time, by recalling Jiraiya and Tsunade under threat of official exile if they didn't return immediately, as well as recalling all active nin to the village for war deployments along the north-west and north-east borders, as well as the southern and eastern coasts. On top of that, school promotions were being reinstated, the same system which saw Akari promoted to Genin early.

He was also clamping down on Jonin, all but forcing several prominent figures, including Kakashi himself, to take teams and train them. If a Jonin didn't have a good reason to not have a team, they received one from the Genin Corps. They needed more soldiers than ever, they simply had too much border space open to allow for coddling on either side of the spectrum.

As for their ally, Suna was apparently locked in a stalemate with Iwa across Kiba no Kuni and Tsume no Kuni, stopping much of the Iwa forces from pressing through Kusa no Kuni and hammering their north-western border. There had already been minor assaults on each of their four exposed borders from advance scouts, the major borders to focus on being the north-eastern and eastern borders, since that was the main direction for Kumo and Kiri to attack from.

The smaller villages weren't getting involved in this war involving the five largest villages. No, they were going to hunker down, taking small chunks of land here and there from whichever village looked as though it would lose the fight. Vice versa, none of the large villages attacked the smaller. Not only did they have bigger fish to fry, if one small village was attacked they would lose for certain, but the rest would immediately gang up on the instigator. None of the large villages had the troops to spare to handle all the other villages attacking at once.

Akari heard the rumor that Tsunade had arrived in the village that day in a fury, only to enter the Hokage's office and come out seemingly placated by something, immediately taking over the hospital from whoever was running it at the time. Considering Tsunade had experience managing the hospital during the Second and Third Shinobi Wars, she was the best for doing so.

There was no rumour of Jiraiya yet, but the spymaster could have been anywhere in the Elemental Nations, possibly as far as Kagi no Kuni, which would take weeks to travel from, so he got a lot more time than the other living Sannin. Tsunade was known to spend most of her time in Tanzaku Quarters, which was an order of magnitude closer than Kagi no Kuni, so her arriving later than a day or two after the recall would be impossible unless she was dead or captured, both very unlikely.

Throwing open the doors to his office when she was told she could enter, she immediately didn't envy Hiruzen's position as Hokage. He didn't look like he had slept since this whole thing kicked off, and from the stacks of paper he was working through, that didn't seem likely to change in the near future. "Hokage-sama, thank you for seeing me." The man gave a curt nod and waved for her to speak, he didn't have time for pleasantries. "I have to ask you to not assign me a mission for four days. At that time I can call Minato forth again to recover Naruto."

The man stopped writing, his pen hovering over the page as he finally looked up and stared into her eyes, searching for the truth in her words. Considering how busy he'd been, it wasn't surprising that he didn't yet know Naruto was gone, she hadn't gotten a chance to speak to him until now, even when she was adamant that she had to discuss this matter as soon as possible. "...I can't promise that Akari-chan. If Kumo or Iwa decide to send their second Jinchuriki's forth to the front lines, we absolutely need you to counter them. I will try my best, but you must understand that you are the linchpin behind our defense. If it's known you cannot leave Konoha for four days, they'll send their Jinchuriki's forth brazenly, knowing that the only one able to fight on even ground with them is trapped at Konoha."

"What about Jiraiya? He can use Fuinjutsu pretty well. I'm sure against Roshi or Yugito he would be able to create a seal and apply it, suppressing their Bijuu." She was about to suggest sending Uchiha, since their Sharingan could control Bijuu, but she bit her lip at that. Just because it could, didn't mean anybody could. As far as she knew, the only ones to control a Bijuu were those who had the Mangekyo. She knew two Uchiha other than her who had unlocked theirs. Shisui was still down a hand and one eye, while Sei's eyes were currently in her own head.

She again cursed the fact they couldn't just swap eyes, but something in the nature of their eyes prevented it. How exactly it worked eluded even her, but it infuriated her none-the-less. "I would normally say yes, except I have no idea how long he will take to return. Don't forget, he has to receive the recall order first, which could take a long time depending on how isolated he is from our messages. On top of that, they could be intercepted, meaning it would take that much longer to reach him." Biting on her thumb, Akari tried to think of another way to ensure she could stay in the village, but nothing came to mind.

Eventually, she dipped her head. "If you're sure Hokage-sama, I just truly hope you can keep me here for that long at least. As soon as I have Naruto back safe in the village, you could throw me into Kumogakure, Kirigakure or Iwagakure with a smile on my face, I'd tear them to pieces. But only after Naruto is home again." Hiruzen dipped his head in agreement, a puff of his pipe being taken in the momentary break he'd received from his paperwork.

"I truly hope so too Akari-chan."

As it turned out, her absence from the front lines was noticed.

But fortunately enough, while they received word that Kumo's Yugito Nii had left the village heading south, it would take her long enough to reach the border that Akari had time enough to outlast her timer on Minato. While she was waiting, she continued her work in the hospital, never running across Tsunade, possibly a blessing in disguise considering her rather unorthodox skill with the Shosen Jutsu, she kept in touch with her team, keeping them training and keeping their focus off of the war, generally doing anything to whittle down the time until finally, it arrived.

"Three, two, one..." She was about to summon Minato, but froze just as she began. Should she ask someone to help her? Perhaps Kakashi, he was strong? Maybe the Hoka-...no, Hiruzen was far too busy, and besides, Kakashi had to wrangle his new team into shape. Komachi and her boyfriend were both running back-to-back missions, as were all the other shinobi she knew who could have hacked helping her. Anko was also practically sleeping all her nights at the T&I division.

Sighing, Akari looked up at Kurama. "Guess it's just gonna be me, you and Minato then, huh boo?" The fox responded by dropping onto her shoulders and disappearing, his consciousness a familiar presence in her head. "Well, fuck it, let's do this." She summoned Minato and granted him free will, watching him look around for a second before focusing on her. "Hey there Minato. You ready for this?"

His blonde hair shook as he nodded. "I have to be, don't I? This is Naruto we're talking about, I've been ready all week." Her eyes widened. So apparently her spectres knew how much time had passed. "But, before we go, I've been thinking, and...I hope I'm wrong, but I want you to try something..." Minato pulled something from his Haori, unfolding it and revealing a small photograph. "I realized when fighting last week that everything I identify as something I would always carry was brought with me, and this is my team photograph."

Akari looked at it in confusion, then at Minato. It was cute, sure, especially the girl in the middle, but what was his point? "I'd like you to try to summon...-" He pointed at the boy on the left, his most distinctive feature being the large orange goggles he wore. "-this boy. I...hope I'm wrong, but I've got a...a hunch. This won't tell us how he can do the things he does, but at least this will possibly let us put a name and face to our masked man. His name is Uchiha Obito."

Shrugging, Akari made her attempt to summon him, then frowned, shaking her head. "He's still alive, so...sorry if you needed to ask him something, but he hasn't died yet." Minato let out a long exhale, rubbing the side of his head in thought. "You okay there boo?" Her words and the fact she was right beside him, leaning over, startled the man slightly, though he regained his composure quickly./

"Yeah, I-uh...Akari-chan, this is just a theory...more a stab in the dark based on suspicions and vague feelings, but I believe the masked man might be Obito." Blinking, Akari again cursed the fact that she didn't observe 'Madara'. "Though if it is him, I don't know how he came to be so strong, he used to be inarguably the weakest male member of our team, only Rin, who was...was our medic, was inferior to him in terms of combat."

Shrugging, Akari just folded her arms. "Doesn't matter if it is him or not, he took Naruto, he attacked Konoha, and heck, he's even responsible for releasing Kurama and forcing him to attack the village, so...if you're thinking of trying to redeem him, stop. He's done far too much to attack Konoha, and I won't rest until he's six feet under, understood?"

She could tell Minato wasn't happy about the prospect of having to potentially attack one of his remaining students, but even he understood the necessity of taking him down permanently. Akari took his hand as he shut his eyes, presumably focusing on wherever the masked man's Hiraishin marker was, then re-opening them when he got a lock, looking to her for confirmation.

Akari gave it with a smirk, preparing herself for a nausea that never came. She didn't question it though, immediately getting a feeling for the situation they just found themself in, when her jaw dropped. They were in a colossal room, one side dwarved by a massive statue that looked like it was made out of wood, hands cuffed together and a bunch of other features Akari had no time to analyze.

Their arrival had surprised the two inhabitants of the room, the masked man and a weird black and white creature. Akari was ready though, immediately observing the pair and filing away the name of the other as she focused on the mask. "Uchiha Obito, you were right Minato." The now-uncovered Obito took a step back in surprise, the other figure saying something to him before falling into the floor and vanishing from sight. "Where is Naruto?"

Obito pressed on his mask, his voice sounding the same as a week ago when he took Naruto. "And what makes you so sure I would give you that information, little Uchiha?" She growled at the nickname, though another part of her felt worry. It was almost certainly coincidence, but that was exactly what Orochimaru had called her. It was exactly what 273 had called her as well.

She shook off the surprise and settled her stance. "Well, you either tell me, or I prove to you why people never let a medic-nin start torturing them. We know where your most painful places are after all, and we can keep you alive as long as we need to." It was clear from his stance the man didn't take her threats seriously, he believed himself the superior in this fight, even with Minato beside her. But, her observe told her something she didn't reveal, something that told her that she had an advantage.

The fact that he was only level 103.

I know it feels like this is moving way too fast, that Akari should have spent longer trying to find Obito.

The thing is though, is that Akari would literally rip the moon in two if it meant getting him back. Remember what Kurama said in chapter 24. She didn't succumb to the curse of hatred, she found something even more precious to protect.

Now...imagine what would happen if Naruto were to die...

final thing...don't get me wrong, I love writing this stuff, but don't begin expecting this story to update every single day. I'm not holding myself to a schedule here everyone, I'm just uploading on the day the chapter is finished, which usually the day after the last one. But...I expect a two, perhaps more, day gap between this chapter and next.

Just clearing that up, and sorry if it makes anybody unhappy, but it's one thing I'm firm about, I won't begin forcing myself to finish the chapter just to release it one day after the last, I won't do it.

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 118

Age: 17?

Experience: 101,097/118,000

To Next Level: 105,166

Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.

Secondary Title: Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin

Health Points: 28,625 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 5625/m - 93.75/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.

Chakra Points: 41,000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 8100/m - 135/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.

Strength - 70

Vitality - 75

Endurance - 75

Intelligence - 90

Agility - 296

Wisdom - 90

Luck - 75

15 Skill Points Available