Chapter 50...
Words...can't really express what that little number means to be now. Fifty chapters of writing, pouring whatever madness my very own brain came up with.
But...what really, honestly, truly and I can't stress this enough, seriously, blows my mind is...you all. 800+ reviews, over a thousand followers and favourites, and then, aaaaand then, over 200,000 views.
I just...I really just want to say how much I adore you all, truly. Reading your reviews and just hearing those little bits you liked, the bits that weren't as good, and just...know that somewhere in the world, one more person had a nice day reading my fanfiction...
So...thank you all so much. I'll stop being sappy now, enjoy the chapter boos!
Chapter 50
Smirking, Akari slipped off her branch with a casual hop, splaying her arms out to control her fall.
As she neared the ground, Akari pivoted until she was falling feetfirst, her boots smashing straight into the face of the shocked Chunin who just so happened to pick her trees to move under. He'd looked up at the odd sound her falling made, just early enough to be shocked before her boots snapped his head back nearly a hundred and eighty degrees with a delightfully loud cracking noise, alerting the rest of his party as to the fact something had just gone horribly wrong...for them.
As she impacted the ground, Akari tucked into a forwards roll using the freshly-made corpse as a cushion, coming up with several Senbon in both hands which she tossed, each one having a mild explosive tag tightly bound around the shaft. Of course, mild for her wasn't quite the same as a normal Shinobi's mild, the craters suddenly pockmarking every impact point of her weapons could attest to that, rending limbs from torsos, one of her Senbon even hitting a Chunin directly in the throat, making him burst in a vicious shower of gore, a section of his guts smacking the face of a nearby Kunoichi in the face which, try as she might, Akari couldn't help but laugh at, just a little.
Baring her teeth in a feral grin, Akari let her Rinnegan open, the rippling eye a terrifying visage for her enemies as she narrowed her gaze. "Asura Path." She turned her palm to the sky, the sound of metal clashing as she pictured what mechanical object she wanted, being left with a nondescript pistol in a mishmash of styles, most prominently looking like a Russian Makarov merged with an Israeli Jericho. She wrapped her hand around the grip, relishing the feeling of holding a gun again, before levelling it at the nearest Iwa-nin, the idiot thinking he might have been able to get the drop on her while she was busy making her weapon.
With a loud bark, the gun fired, the bullet impacting his jaw and shattering it, sending him screaming to the floor. Frowning, Akari tossed the pistol away, forming a shotgun this time, a crude pump-action which didn't even really resemble a weapon from her world. As she fired it at the new nearest enemy nin, she just couldn't shake the feeling that guns were just...underwhelming now. Even the loud bark of a shotgun sawing some poor schmuck in half just didn't do it for her anymore, not compared to, well...
With a sigh, Akari discarded that shotgun, levelling her right palm towards a group of Iwa-nin, all of whom were trying to flee. "Shinra Tensei." A blast of invisible gravitational force rocketed out of her hand, slamming into the midst of the enemy nin then violently detonating, creating an attack much like a pressure-wave fro man explosion, rupturing internal organs, tearing flesh from bone, and turning the one the Jutsu impacted into mulch.
She formed a few hand seals, spitting out several water bullets to catch those few nin trying to run away. The Rinnegan had given her all five Nature Transformations as primary affinities, though she hadn't noticed that for a little while, too distracted by the idea of bringing Kushina and Minato back. It meant she could quite happily manipulate the elements directly, making her own unique Jutsu quite easily.
Akari was no Tobirama, inventing Jutsu left, right and centre, but she'd already come up with a few ideas, like a throwable ball of lightning held within a larger ball of water, or a long-release lightning attack, one she could fire off and have it act more like a dispenser than an instant bomb. She just hadn't bothered to put them into practice, since with the other abilities of the Rinnegan, she found she really didn't need to.
Pointing her palm down towards a corpse, she fired a Black Receiver into his back, wincing as she felt the nervous system of his body shudder. Then, he slowly got up, the duality of two different pairs of eyes giving Akari a headache as her brain tried and failed to comprehend how she was seeing from two places at once. It wasn't listed as far as Akari could tell, but by using the Black Receivers, she could essentially puppet a corpse, seeing through its eyes, controlling it, and even using one of her Six Paths through it. But, for some reason, after using one technique from a single Path, the corpse became entirely unable to use another path, essentially hard-locking it in that Path.
Not that it mattered, since she just sent the corpse charging towards his former allies, while she sat back, trying to get used to fighting using someone else's body. Maybe this was how the Yamanaka's felt when they possessed someone, having to quickly get used to their skill-set so they could use it against them. To be fair, Akari just sort of made his body charge, but quickly gave up when she remembered just how...slow other people could be. She overextended in a swing thanks to the fact that his body simply didn't have the same strength or speed as hers, getting his arm lopped off followed quickly by his head.
She casually tossed a Kunai with an explosive tag into the leg of the one who killed her 'puppet', blasting the Kunoichi's legs and midriff out from under her. At this point, quite a few of the Iwa-nin were cutting their losses and fleeing away towards the mountains in the distance marking Iwagakure's border with Kusa. She only let a small handful escape, the unfortunate rest each had their throats slit by Shadow Clones waiting just for such an occasion, their corpses littering the ground. Genin, Chunin, or Jonin, it didn't matter, none of them could match her Shadow Clones for speed.
With a flick of her hands, more Senbon found their way between her fingers, dripping with poison. Akari had finally perfected her poison mixture, though she didn't have a name for it yet. The poison was just a mix of twenty-seven different poisons, each between danger rating 7 and 15, all of them congealing together into a hyper-lethal mix. The only person immune to it was Akari herself, which meant that she could throw down a vial filled with an airborne version of the mixture, and be 99.9% sure that everyone nearby was going to die.
She just didn't need to use it.
"Wait, they're already surrendering?"
Frowning, Akari gestured around at the mountainous terrain surrounding the Konoha camp when Shigaraki confirmed his previous words. "But, we're still miles away from Iwagakure itself. I guess it's probably me causing this again, huh?" The man snorted.
"Well obviously, what with some worshipping you as the second coming of the Sage of Six Paths, I'm not surprised they're trying to surrender." Now it was Akari's turn to snort. She knew a bit about Hagoromo thanks to Kurama, and she knew that for all her strength, he was probably stronger. Maybe she could win if she turned it into a Fuinjutsu battle, having hit level 100 in her proficiencies only recently, but her other proficiencies were all still under level 90, so considering how skilled the man was, he'd probably win.
Though, who knew, maybe she could pull a trick or two out of her inventory to surprise him and get the upper hand. Not that she ever wanted to fight him of course. "So, am I going along with Hiruzen to the peace treaty again?" The man shook his head. "Awh, why not? I wanted to insult Onoki again, that was fun damn it!"
Chuckling, Shigaraki passed her a sheet of paper. "Because Hokage-sama wants you in the village while he's away, just to make sure they don't pull anything while the treaty is being signed. Kumo, Kiri and Suna are all going to be there as well, since after hearing of what you pulled off, none of them want anything to do with this war. It's strange how quickly they went from all-out war to peace negotiations, but I suppose nobody wants to fight someone wielding a Rinnegan." Humming, Akari had a different idea as to why things turned out like this.
Fugaku. Not the man himself of course, but the fact that he was under a Genjutsu. Since Obito, then afterwards Zetsu and Nagato, really wanted her for Kurama, for some nefarious reason no doubt, and had no qualms about killing people, surely if they really didn't care that much, they wouldn't mind starting a Fourth Shinobi War, just to create enough chaos for them to move forwards with their goals.
Considering they wanted Kurama, it begged the question of why? "Perhaps they planned to collect my siblings as well, to reform the Juubi?" Kurama helpfully piped in his opinion, making her look at the event fro that angle. It matched up pretty well, aside from why the hell they wanted to bring the Ten-tails back to life. Then it hit her. Obito had a Mangekyo. Since the Ten-tails was still a tailed beast, he would be able to control it. Perhaps he intended to control it and use it as a weapon against someone, perhaps Konoha or just the villages in general?
Akari shook her head, clearing her thoughts as she took the movement orders Shigaraki had placed before her. She'd never know, and she didn't mind that, since they were all dead now. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around then? Say hi to Nezu for me!" With a wave, she vanished into crimson, appearing in the middle of her bedroom in the blink of an eye by using her Hiraishin. "I wonder how those three are doing..." Akari mused out loud, as her team, as well as all the other Genin from the borders, had been recalled to Konoha already, the Hokage's sentimentality showing.
Granted, it was also because Akari was single-handedly whooping Iwa's ass, but they could have merely been redeployed to Yu no Kuni or even the eastern and southern coast to defend against incursions from Kiri. Though the fact that it meant she knew the chances of her team suddenly getting kidnapped again were even lower than after she burned Zetsu to ashes certainly was a bonus.
Cracking her back, Akari left her room and wandered downstairs, heading for the living room where she collapsed down onto the sofa, sighing in contentment as the chair bounced with her. It wasn't like she hated camping out or anything, but a sleeping bag was never as comfortable as a sofa or a proper bed, so getting the chance to be lazy and relax in her living room was a welcome comfort.
Closing her eyes for a few minutes, Akari just let herself do absolutely nothing. She knew she was probably supposed to be going straight to the Hokage, but ten minutes extra wouldn't hurt, though she made sure to re-open her eyes and sit up when she felt herself slipping off to sleep. Ten minutes would be fine, but if an ANBU came by and saw her napping away on her sofa, that wouldn't be as explainable.
She eventually got up, trooping back upstairs so she could get a look at herself in a mirror, wincing as she immediately withdrew a brush and clawed away at her hair. She wasn't someone who really cared much about her outwards appearance, but showing up at the Hokage's office with hair that looked like the aftermath of a motorway pile-up was not a good idea.
Dousing a finger in water, Akari then began wiping away any flecks of blood still stuck to her face, none of it hers, most of it generated by using Shinra Tensei on people directly and making them explode with the force, or throwing explosive tags around like they were receipts. "Heh, here you go sir, one receipt for death." She mumbled, scratching away at a particularly solid clump of blood.
She took a sniff of herself as she finished washing her face off, deciding she smelled fine enough for someone just coming back from a war, then stripped off her vest and trousers, using her inventory to swap them around. She'd taken to carrying several sets of back-ups in case something got coated in blood, which made changing a cinch. Of course, she could have just used a Henge to cover up the bloodstains, or just used a Henge to cover herself all the time...no, that sounded creepy. Maybe it would save on clothing, but...yeah, no.
Plus, if anyone ever looked at her with an ability that could see through Henges...nope! She quickly bound the bottom of her trousers in wrappings to hold it down, shrugging the vest on, then looked at herself in the mirror, tilting her head to the side as she really looked at herself. Her hair had grown out a little, the tip of her thick ponytail now brushing down just beneath her shoulder-blades, while her body proportions were mostly the same, of moderately thin arms, surprisingly pale skin despite the time she'd spent out in the sun, and a decently-small chest.
A stray thought of Tsunade crossed her mind, making her snort. That poor woman must have had a hell of a time getting used to fighting with those giant bags in the way. Akari was honestly quite happy how she was, even...well, as she twisted her left arm around, she was honestly, after proper introspection, happy with herself just the way she was. Sure, she could replace her hand super-easily just by using the Naraka Path, but, in truth...
...She wasn't just happy, she was...content.
Walking through Konoha was certainly a different experience than only a few short weeks ago.
Everywhere she looked, people were either fearful of her, in awe, or simply respectful. There weren't many middle-grounds whatsoever, as apparently she was now extremely well-known, a step or three above being well-known as she was before. It might have had something to do with the whole bringing all of the previous Hokage's back to life to save Konoha, or maybe the fact she was now known to possess a Rinnegan of all things, but whatever it was, Akari was now even more known than when she was the Jinchuriki for Kurama. "Ehh, Aniki?" Turning her head, Akari spotted Sei walking nearby
"Imouto?" She walked over to Sei, giving him a quick hug. As she let go of him, she watched him tip his gaze up and down her. "What? Oh, let me guess, this thing makes me look weird? Or...oh, right, my affinities." Of course Akari would look different to her brother, Sei saw based on affinities after all, which made identifying people difficult sometimes, though she supposed maybe he learned a way to distinguish between certain Chakra networks...somehow. "Yeah, this damn eye gave me an affinity for all five Nature Transformations, so...what do I even look like now?"
Sei reached to brush her temple, a smile on his lips. "Just as beautiful as ever Imouto." Dipping her head, Akari grinned, lunging forwards to hug her brother far more tightly this time around." So, how've you been, you fighting hard out there sis?" Making a noise in her throat, Akari shrugged, releasing her brother from the hug.
"I guess. I mean, they've called me back to Konoha while stuff happens, but I think I've been making a big enough ruckus to scare the other villages into submission." As Akari spoke, her mind suddenly ticked over onto a very important fact. "Uhh, Aniki...I-...when I've finished with meeting Hokage-sama, so in like half an hour, can you drop by my place? I...want to ask you something, it involves, well, my Rinnegan, so I don't want to just talk about it." Her brother was obviously curious, but realized that she had an ability she wanted to tell him about in secret much like her second Mangekyo ability.
"Okay Imouto, just...be careful, hmm?" Smiling, she gave Sei a final brief hug, disappearing with his promise that he'd show up at her house ringing in her ears, and her forehead feeling warm from the gentle kiss he'd planted there. She could finally fix things for her brother. Putting her idea in the back of her mind so she didn't look like a grinning maniac all the way to the Hokage's Tower, she certainly did nothing to stop the smile on her face or the happy lolling of her head as she strode towards the large tower.
Other people took note of this, but of course, with nothing to base it off, simply knew that Akari was undoubtedly in a very good mood about something. While those who still harboured hatred and suspicion of her for being Kurama's Jinchuriki merely sneered at this, others found their own day lightened just a little by the almost palpable joy Akari was radiating.
In short order she arrived at the tower, bypassing the mission office and heading straight up the stairs, passing by two Chunin who waved as she breezed by, then arrived at the desk of Hiruzen's receptionist. "Heya Asha, I'm supposed to be seeing the Hokage about my assignment while he heads off to this peace negotiation." The woman gave her a pleasant smile, waving one hand at the door.
"Please, go right ahead, I'm sure he'd appreciate the break from paperwork." Grinning, Akari entered the office, barely seeing Hiruzen's hat behind the towering masses of white which made up the daily paperwork the village generated. By this point, Akari was seriously feeling sorry for the poor man, so she decided against giving him a heart attack by spooking him.
"Hokage-sama, are you in there?" She made a show of standing on her tip-toes to look over the papers, watching him shunt aside a stack with a sigh. "Okay, before anything, I just...I have to bring this up. Is there a reason you do all this paperwork without using even a single Shadow Clone to help?" The old man stared at her for a few moments, seemingly aging a few years right in front of her eyes.
"And people still call me the Professor." He took his pipe and puffed on it, leaning back in his chair, seemingly relishing the break Akari had given him. "Now, I know you'd probably want to come along and rub it into Onoki's face that you were the one to stop Iwa's attack for the third time in under ten years, but I want you here in Konoha. I don't doubt that the other villages will look for any way to turn this war into their favour before the official armistice comes into play as we each move towards Tetsu no Kuni to negotiate peace-deals." Humming, Akari could certainly see that.
Right now, it was undisputed that Konoha had the advantage. In peace-talks, that was huge! Whoever was seen as having the advantage in the war had way more leverage to force actions like mission diversions, financial reimbursement, even things like demanding replacement weapon shipments. As such, unless the other three villages did something to level the field a little, they would certainly be coming out of this in the red. "So, you want me to look after Konoha while you go do this?" The man nodded, puffing on his pipe. "Ehh, whatever. So, you gonna use a few Shadow Clones in your stead to keep things running?" The man stared at her for a few more moments, making it clear he hadn't thought of that either.
"...Never let anyone say you don't think outside of the box, Akari-chan."
Yes, it's shorter.
This chapter is just showing off Akari using some of her powers, correcting a mistake I made (The Rinnegan gives a mastery over all five basic nature transformations), setting up something I wanted Akari to do, as well as having her finally tell Hiruzen that he should just use Shadow Clones to help him do paperwork.
Don't forget, there's a poll at the very top of my profile for where Akari is going to go next. So please, leave a vote on there for whichever Universe you'd like her to go to!
And Seiiiii! He's still my favourite ever OC, he's just...I love him so much, he's so sweet, and badass, and ahhhhh, best big brother material still going strong. Screw pulling a Ninja Gamer and killing him, Sei is just a sweetheart.
Name: Akari Uchiha
Level: 149
Age: 17?
Experience: 83,888/149,000
To Next Level: 65,112
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: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3
Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.3/s - (Vit x End) x 2
Chakra Points: 454,500 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3
Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.3/s - (Int x Wis) x 2
Strength - 100
Vitality - 100
Endurance - 100
Intelligence - 100
Agility - 400
Wisdom - 100
Luck - 100
30 Skill Points Available