AN: Thank you for the support to those that gave it. It means a lot.

Note: Still haven't successfully made a copyright claim on Naruto or its related contents.


Exactly one year from the day of the massacre.

Akakiryu had gone back to work for the hospital, and Sasuke went back to his classes with the academy. They both had gradually settled into their routines, and Sasuke had seemed to be back to normal after a couple months. Having Akakiryu with him had prevented him from falling into despair, but he was still withdrawn from the people around him. It would likely still take some time for that to get better.

However, despite how well he had been doing lately, with today being the anniversary of his family's death, Sasuke had fallen into sadness again.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in class." Akakiryu spoke up after finally finding Sasuke. The boy sat kneeling before his parents' graves, fresh flowers placed in the vases of both of them.

"Yeah and you should be at the hospital." Sasuke spat back. His tone of voice was a bit unkind due to his poor mood. He didn't bother looking up.

Akakiryu kneeled down next to Sasuke, also staring at the graves of Mikoto and Fugaku. "Technically, I am. I left a shadow clone there."

Sasuke continued to stare at his parents' graves. "Ryu." Sasuke spoke up. "Why weren't you as sad as me?"

"What?" Akakiryu was a bit surprised, he turned and looked at Sasuke.

Sasuke looked back at him. "About the clan. You never seemed as sad as me. Is it because they were mean to you before?"

"The clan, huh?" Akakiryu mused. "Well, I certainly became a bit estranged from the clan. But it's not like I didn't grieve for those I liked in the clan. There were many aunties and uncles that treated me kindly, some even after Shisui died."

"Then why didn't you seem sad? Not even about your dad." Sasuke pushed for more. It had bothered him quite a bit, as it felt as though he was the only one truly upset. He had never asked, as Akakiryu acting normal had helped in its own way, but he needed to ask now. He wanted to know.

"Well, Sasuke, there are a couple reasons." Akakiryu absentmindedly started pulling out blades of grass next to him, one at a time, messing with them as he talked. "I wanted to provide you with a sense of normalcy, for one. You are my last family member." 'Besides Itachi. And I suppose Naruto and other Uzumaki people.' He thought. "So, I wanted to be able to help you grieve. And, in a way, that helped me grieve."

"I see." Sasuke stared back at his parents' graves. "Just for me?"

"No, I'm not that selfless." Akakiryu admitted. "Part of it is also, well." Akakiryu threw away the grass he was playing with and looked up at the sky. "I'd say I'm also just not good with emotions. I'm not good at feeling them or showing them."

"What?" Sasuke turned to Akakiryu and looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean?" He really couldn't understand something like that.

"I'm good with curiosity and amusement, but things like sadness and anger make me feel a weird sense of emptiness instead. So, I'd say it doesn't affect me like most people." Akakiryu shrugged.

"That's… kind of weird." Sasuke tilted his head.

"Yup." Akakiryu stood up and patted the dirt and grass off his bottom. He held a hand out to Sasuke. "Come on, I'll make you spaghetti for lunch."

Sasuke stared at Akakiryu for a bit. 'Ryu really is weird. But,' He looked at the hand before him. 'He's family.' He grabbed the hand. "Okay."


"What, really?"

"Yes." Shikaku nodded at the boy before him. "You've already been officially made a Jonin a while ago, so it's time that you get put on standard missions again."

It had been a couple of months since his talk with Sasuke, and today Akakiryu had been summoned by Shikaku for a briefing. He was promoted to full Jonin status some time after the massacre, so he wasn't too surprised that this would happen.

"Alright." Akakiryu nodded. "What about my time with the hospital? They're going to struggle a bit if I suddenly leave."

"You can continue your hospital work in-between missions. It is not wartime or anything, so they will be fine without you some days. I will be withholding you from long-term missions so it will not be an issue." Shikaku rummaged his desk a bit and pulled out a scroll.

"Here." He tossed it to Akakiryu. "That's your mission scroll, read it over later. You'll be leading two Chunin. They will meet you tomorrow morning at the gates. Their pictures and info are included in the scroll. Report to me upon completion. Dismissed." He lazily waved away Akakiryu.

The red-head shrugged and disappeared.


"Did you see who our captain for this mission is?" Izumo asked Kotetsu. They were standing by the village gates early in the morning. This time they weren't there to guard but waiting to gather for a different mission entirely.

Kotetsu shrugged, "I just looked over the actual mission part. I could care less who leads us, I'll figure them out when I see them."

Izumo sighed at his partner, "You know for once it would have been good. Our captain is a bit of a wonder this time around."

"Yeah, is he famous or something?"

"Kind of, but for interesting reasons-"

"Yo." Akakiryu waved a hand after appearing right next to the two chunin.

"Akakiryu Uchiha!" Kotetsu was startled and cried out a bit, looking visibly taken aback, whilst Izumo just sighed at the sight.

"Yup, that's me." Akakiryu nodded. "And you two are my subordinates for this mission."

"Correct." Izumo spoke and Kotetsu awkwardly nodded. 'I didn't think we'd be with the Uchiha prodigy.' Kotetsu thought. 'Maybe Izumo was right. I really need to start reading up on these things.' He scratched his head.

"Alright then, let's get a move on. Time is wasting." Akakiryu immediately burst out of the village at a breakneck pace, making Izumo and Kotetsu struggle to catch up and keep pace.


This time around their mission took them to the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Grass. Rogue shinobi had been making attacks on caravans and travelers on the border, and even starting conflicts with some shinobi teams, thereby instigating rumors of malpractice by Konoha and Kusa shinobi.

Previously, Kusa had insisted on taking care of it personally as the rogues operated mostly within Grass borders, but the team they had sent out to deal with the rogues proved to be insufficient for the job and were mostly killed, with just one survivor. Kusa was angered, but they couldn't spare any Jonin to deal with the issue for another week, and that risks letting the rogue shinobi being able to escape.

Thus, Konoha took up the responsibility and Akakiryu and team were sent for the job.

As Akakiryu and the duo got close to the area of operations for the rogues, they began discussing the mission. "The surviving Kusa shinobi said that the rogues are composed of seven or eight Chunin level combatants, so this should be a fairly dangerous team. Most rogue shinobi aren't on this level, and rarely do they gather like this so we should err on the side of caution." Akakiryu mentioned to his team.

"I've heard you two are fairly competent, but I'll be the one to take them head on if they're together. You two will act as support." Izumo and Kotetsu nodded. They were in agreement, as they heard mentions of the capabilities of the boy before them. "Hopefully, we can pick them off individually without needing to face the whole group, but that will depend on our luck."

Izumo hesitated but then asked, "Captain, how come we're being sent out for this? Isn't this kind of mission usually for something like ANBU?"

"Usually you'd be correct." Akakiryu agreed. "They seem to be busy lately." The ANBU were indeed busy, as they've been short-handed since Danzo got shafted after the massacre.

They continued on until they reached the border and passed over into the Land of Grass. The rogue shinobi operated in a pretty wide area it seems, likely to avoid border patrols by Kusa and Konoha.

They began scouting once they were there.

"Found you." Akakiryu smiled. Izumo and Kotetsu perked their ears up at the words and awaited orders.

"I found two of them by a road. They seem to be waiting for travelers. Since there's just two, I'll take care of it." Akakiryu was pretty nonchalant about the situation.

"Are you sure, Captain? Even if it's just two, they're still supposedly Chunin level." Izumo was hesitant.

"Two Chunin are simply, not enough." Akakiryu smiled at the duo. They couldn't help but feel a chill. Akakiryu disappeared in a flurry of black feathers.


"Why do we even bother with normal travelers?" One of the rogues spoke up. He had no headband to indicate his previous affiliation, and he was just garbed in sturdy leather clothing. Not enough for protection against other shinobi, but enough to mitigate some low level attacks.

The other, similarly garbed, replied. "We've gotta take what we can get. We can't stay in this area much longer, so we've gotta rack up as much cash as we can. Not much we can do about it. Especially after we killed those Kusa shinobi, I bet we have a couple days at most before we've got Jonin on our asses."

"Yeah, but still-" Their talk was interrupted by some ruffling in the bushes and they immediately took up their weapons staring at the source of the noise. They soon saw a young boy garbed in a Konoha flack jacket with the forehead protector to boot, something that should have immediately caused them to attack. But the bizarre nature of the red-headed boy and the nonchalance in which he walked out of the bushes towards them somehow stopped them from attacking.

"Hey kid, what're you-" They stared down the boy but the moment they caught a glimpse of his eyes they were out.

Akakiryu stood next to the two collapsed and unconscious bodies of the rogue shinobi and called for his teammates. "Izumo, Kotetsu." They appeared.

"Woah, within seconds." Kotetsu was impressed. Izumo was similarly amazed. They knew a bit of genjutsu but nothing that could totally incapacitate Chunin like this.

"We'll tie them up and keep them in a location to imprison them for later. Kusa will want one of them for their purposes and we'll keep the other for interrogation. We can just hand them off to a border patrol." Izumo and Kotetsu nodded in agreement.

"Alright then." Akakiryu gently clapped his hands. "Let's welcome our guests then." Kotetsu was a bit slow but Izumo immediately brought out his weapons at the suggested notion.

"This kid is pretty good." Several figures appeared from the tree-line. The big guy in the lead spoke up. "Are you a sensor kid? Those losers from Kusa didn't even find us till we killed half of them. You, on the other hand, were pretty quick on the uptake." He began mockingly clapping whilst the rest of their group were laughing."

Izumo and Kotetsu left the two prisoners to appear at the sides of Akakiryu, backing him up. "What's the plan captain?" Kotetsu asked lightheartedly but some sweat had already appeared on his brow. He didn't know his chances against six Chunin.

"Woah woah woah, he's your captain?" The big guy laughed harder at what he overheard. "Konoha is really losing their touch."

The group laughed more but one of them looked a little closer at the kid leading their enemies. "Hey boss, wait a sec I think this kid might be-" And then he froze.

"Oi Shinji what the hell?" "Get it together." "Kai!" His fellow rogues tried to snap him out of it but none of them could get him out of the genjutsu.

The big guy in the lead panicked a bit. "Uchiha?! I heard you all died though!"

Akakiryu spoke to Izumo and Kotetsu. "Hold onto the prisoners for me." He looked at them with a smile and they saw his eyes morph and merge to form diamonds in his eyes.

Akakiryu turned back to the rogue shinobi before him. He watched them spread out and watch him cautiously, but he knew. He could feel it. They would be helpless.

Blood dripped from his left eye and he closed it shut for a moment. When it was opened, he spoke thus.

"Inari."

Suddenly the world morphed for the rogues. The trees that had hid and protected them so well in the past several days had disappeared and the world had become tinted in gold. Instead of the trees and distant hills, torii of different proportions appeared to create an endless landscape of just vermillion gates and gold skies.

"What the hell?!" The rogues panicked. This was well beyond the standard shinobi arts they were familiar with. It almost seemed godly. Most of them attempted to break out of what they assumed was a genjutsu.

One of them, a man weaker in mind than the rest, walked towards one of the small torii gates near them absentmindedly trying to grasp the world around him. "What is this?" Before he could react a flash appeared from the gate and in a blink his head was removed.

Akakiryu walked out of the gate and swung his tanto to flick the blood off. "Amusing." He smiled as he looked at the gate he just came from. It seems that he could walk through any of the gates to appear from any of the others in a form of limited teleportation. The trick, cool as it was, was easy to see for anyone that paid attention, however.

"Get away from the gates!" The big guy spoke out. The remaining four of them grouped up away from any of the torii. They already lost two of them. "At once!" They attacked Akakiryu in unison.

One of them sent out two umbrellas that sprayed out senbon, whilst two of them combined wind and fire jutsus to send a torrent of flames at Akakiryu with the big guy launching two giant demon wind shuriken at Akakiryu with all his strength.

Akakiryu laughed a bit at the sight. His Sharingan saw the attacks appear practically in slow motion. Before they could reach them, he simply stepped back into the gate. Akakiryu disappeared but the attacks flew through the gates futilely.

"You'll need to do better than that." Akakiryu spoke to them with a grin from the top of a bigger torii, where he sat and lazily swung his legs that dangled from the edge.

"DAMN IT!" The big guy was losing himself in rage and panic and his comrades were barely better.

Akakiryu watched them for a couple more seconds but it seemed like they were going to just wait for him. That didn't bother him in the least. He had plenty of time. He felt that he could maintain this power for at least thirty minutes in ease with his current eyes and chakra.

Eventually it was the big guy that gave into his rage and fear. "I'LL KILL YOU!" He rushed towards Akakiryu and jumped up to attack him with a massive sword he summoned from a scroll.

Akakiryu watched him attack with a smile and, without moving from where he was sitting, brought up a single hand to form a seal.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" And he released a massive ball of flames bigger than a house towards the big guy jumping at him.

The shinobi that had used the senbon umbrellas previously called out in a panic and tried to do something. "Boss!" He quickly shot a water jutsu from his mouth to try to block the fire, but it was simply… not enough.

The rogue shinobi's supposed boss didn't even have a chance to scream before the flames burned him to ashes, practically unimpeded by the lacking water jutsu.

"BASTARD!" The water using shinobi called out in grief-fueled rage. "I'LL KILL-" He didn't get to finish his threat before a lightning chakra fueled kunai exploded his head, leaving his body to collapse next to his remaining two teammates who were left covered in his brain matter.

The two of them looked at eachother, seeing the other covered in gore, and made a quick decision. "We surrender! Please, let us go!" They called in unison. "Put us in prison, anything! Just get us out of this damn place!" One of them added on.

Akakiryu put a finger to his cheek and tilted his head. "Hmm." He leaned towards them as if needing a closer look to decide. "No need." He shrugged. "I already have two prisoners, and now you two know about my secret technique."

They fell to their knees and began begging but they didn't get another second before they were riddled with water bullets.

Akakiryu looked over all the bodies on the ground. He felt another odd feeling. It was almost like an itch that he felt like he needed to scratch seeing those he killed. It came from his right eye.

And he indulged it.

Blood dripped from his right eye and he called out. "Shinigami." Six skeletal hands came out of his chest and went towards the final resting places of the different shinobi. They each scooped up a body, or pile of ashes in one case, and brought them in front of Akakiryu. He looked at the contents of the six hands and he tugged.

Chakra poured out from the various remains into the hands and up the skeletal arms into Akakiryu's body. He felt the limits of his body that he had pushed every day in training naturally expand rapidly. The chakra he had expended in using Inari was replenished in an instant, and he was gaining even more chakra than what he had previously.

Akakiryu smiled. "Ah, delicious."


Izumo and Kotetsu looked around the area wildly. It was just a few minutes ago that they saw their captain and the enemy shinobi disappear in a flash of golden light.

"What the hell was that?" Kotetsu asked a bit anxiously. "The captain's jutsu? What kind of jutsu does that?"

"It should have been the captain that did it." Izumo agreed. "I just don't know how."

They weren't given more time to think before Akakiryu reappeared. He returned alone.

They looked at the red-headed boy with countless questions in their eyes and on their tongues but were left almost speechless when all the boy said was. "Alright, let's head back."

They didn't get a chance to reply as the boy started walking towards the road leisurely with his hands in his pockets. Kotetsu looked at Izumo and spoke up, "You know what Izumo? I don't think guarding the gate is that bad anymore." Izumo didn't know how to respond to that.


AN: Howdy. I hope you liked Akakiryu's abilities. They will be explored further later, but I hope what you've seen is to your liking. I had taken various suggestions into consideration when designing them.

Till next time,

~ Seeker