"Please don't," Aiko said with an exasperated sigh, "I can handle them, trust me. Getting all of Konoha involved would be like starting a civil war. And my family doesn't know how not to play dirty, everything would get out of hand so quickly."

"I don't doubt you know what you're talking about," Kakashi started, sitting behind his desk in the Hokage office, "but this is serious." He dropped the papers from his hands that held a written account of the memories the Wolf ANBU had extracted from Aiko—though Kakashi had also had a verbal recounting of events when the special ops team had reported to him. "And you're telling me it even goes deeper than this..." He took off his Hokage hat and ran one of his hands through his spiked, silver hair.

The ANBU leader had been right, it was good that Aiko had waited to say all of this. It spared her having to tell it all twice. "Yes, but what I'm trying to really tell you is that you need to let me handle this myself. I'm sure they already know I'm here, which is already going to put them on the defensive. You have no idea what you would be walking into if you tried to confront them. I'm sure they've already placed Konoha on their blacklist and realize the shit their in right now. Your job is to take care of and protect Konoha, Kakashi. The best way for you to do that is to let me deal with my family alone. If I need help, I'll come to you, and you can step in then."

The Hokage sighed, "I guess I don't really have a choice."

Aiko smiled, "I'm stronger than I look, you know."

Kakashi grinned back through his mask, "I don't doubt that." He then sat up straighter in his chair and put his Hokage hat back on, "As for you though, Sasuke, there are some things we need to discuss."

The Uchiha held back from rolling his eyes, "I'm sure..."

"Alright then," Kakashi waived a hand of dismissal in faux seriousness, "I wish you luck dealing with your family, Aiko, but don't think I'm not going to keep my eye on the situation."

Aiko let out a short hum and smiled, bowing quickly and then leaving. She needed to handle this quickly, get the upper hand over her family before they had the chance to organize anything or plan too much.

Keeping a subconscious grip on her fan that was strapped to her back, which had been returned to her the next morning after her ANBU questioning, Aiko made her way towards the Okumura compound. It was just as stone and just as cold looking as she remembered it. The tall, circling wall that wrapped its way around her family homes was just as menacing looking—like a large, stone giant that glared down at anyone who walked by. And there at the back, even visible over the wall, sat the painfully sharp and cruel Temple she knew so well. It seemed to beckon her mockingly, as if laughing at her return. She looked away from it as she entered through the Okumura main gate, and shoved back the memories it conjured.

Immediately, several people began running towards her, but Aiko was prepared. She quickly and skillfully unstrapped her fan, opened it, and swung. A painless but strong gust erupted, sending her attempted assailants flying backwards unharmed. They spat curses at her but stopped when she shot them all dangerous glares as she passed by. The look in her blue eyes, such a strong boldness, frightened them terribly—but also held them in awe. the Okumura valued such strength over others, an upper hand where it would count most. To them, and those who watched, Aiko was proving herself worthy. Worthy to follow. Worthy to lead the family.

She was not what they remembered.

Aiko carried herself confidently. It came as a shock to her the level of ease with which she dispatched anyone who got in her way. Had she really become so strong? She dwelled on this thought as she moved quickly through the Okumura main house, heading to where she knew her mother and father would be.

They were always in Karasu's office. Always planning, always scheming. It was where blood ebbed and flowed through ink on papers; signed and sealed death writs for targets. It was where Karasu dirtied his hands and bruised his knuckles. She hated that room. It held nothing but bad memories for her—and for many others, she was sure.

Despite the lack of challenge from her family members, Aiko knew not to let her guard down. They wouldn't play fair, and as they now knew that a frontal assault to her wouldn't work, she mused that they now planned to attack from shadows. She needed to stay alert.

The door to her father's office was open as she entered and it came as no shock when she found her parents—and even her grandmother—inside. Their faces were flushed, as if they had just spent the last few moments screaming at each other in a rage. Even so, they maintained the perfect images of composure.

They wouldn't back down from her.

"Aiko, dear, you've returned," Nanami spoke softly and gracefully. Her voice was just as melodic as the red head remembered it. Just as poisonous.

"Was that so hard?" Karasu asked coldly, "Returning voluntarily? All this violence could have been avoided."

Aiko scoffed and raised an eyebrow, her father was the same as ever. Same frigid personality, same grey kimono with silver trim. "As if any of you really gave me a choice."

"We always have a choice," Hitomi hissed as she narrowed her eyes, "You just chose to care. As we knew you would. Such weakness." Aiko looked at her grandmother. She didn't remember much of the old woman, who made a point to never give Aiko the time of day when she was younger—unless it was to teach her a lesson. Even so, Aiko felt a danger when looking into her elder's eyes. Those wrinkly, dark eyes held secrets that she would take to her grave. But somehow, even looking at these three people who had caused her the most pain, Aiko felt she had grown past them. All the way down to Aiko's core, she could tell that even her own chakra was now no match for anyone here. She was stronger. Much stronger.

"No games then," Nanami folded her hands in front of her, "Where do you expect this to go, Aiko? Everything we did—have done—was for the betterment of the family! Whatever grandiose you think you're playing at here will only shatter what we have worked so hard to build, so that our successors could all have better lives than we did. Do you think to murder us and change the dynamic of our clan? You would hurt many Okumura children—"

"As you hurt me?!" Aiko interrupted, "As you hurt them already?! I was young and naive once, but I was not blind to the cruelty you showed anyone you deemed beneath you." Her passive grip on her fan tightened in her anger, "You praise those who followed your rules, who allowed you to shape them into your own instruments of change. Your golden children; your family prodigies. But when any of us veered from your own designated path—strayed from what you rule as the values of the entire family—you sneer and berated and tore down all of us!" Aiko was angry, justifiably so, but it didn't stop her from noticing the movement behind her and quickly ramming the butt of her fan—which was closed at the moment—into the person who tried to grab at her unseen.

A man fell away to the floor at the red head's side, coughing and sputtering out blood as he clutched at his stomach. When Aiko returned her attention to her parents and grandmother, they all stared at her, startled. They were making the same mistake that Atsushi had made. They were seeing her as weak, just the same child she had been when she had run away. They didn't understand her power, despite knowing of it. She had delivered them Atsushi's head but in the backs of their minds they played it off as her having help. She was just grandstanding. She couldn't actually challenge them.

"You think I'm playing games?" Aiko asked calmly and slowly, her voice dripping with danger as she dropped her fan into a vertical stand onto the body of her attacker. She leaned onto the end with her elbow resting on the top of her weapon. The man grunted in pain at the sudden force of pressure but didn't have the strength to move her. "The only ones pretending at any faux grandiose here are all of you." Aiko barked out a laugh, "Not that I'm surprised."

Hitomi's face was the color of a tomato in that moment. The short, elderly woman balled her fists and her brows furrowed to the point of almost connecting, "How dare you speak to your betters in such—"

"YOU ARE NOT MY BETTERS!" Aiko shouted, easily kicking her fan up in a vertical arc, keeping it closed, and cracking it on her grandmother's head all in one swoop. No one had seen it coming, nor expected the assault, which left Hitomi crying out in pain as she clutched at her head of grey hair. Aiko cradled her weapon now, one hand gripping the bottom and the other cupping the top, "It appears none of you understand my reason for returning, so I'll speak plainly: This family will no longer run under your guidance and authority. As of right now, I am forcibly taking over and assuming my role as High Priestess—with or without your blessing, father." Aiko spoke with such command that no one in the room was able to find their voice.

But they stared at her with quiet, dripping rage.

Nanami took a shaky, hesitant step towards her daughter, "You can't—!"

Aiko shot her a look that drained the color from her mother's face and stopped her from coming any closer, "Watch me."