Chapter 28. To Cheat the Devil.

"Well, that's something I didn't expect from you of all people." He said as he sat straighter. "You do know I should report on you for treason, right?"

I stared ahead of me and into the horizon as the spring breeze blew my hair back and away from my face. I didn't want to see the disappointment in Kakashi's eye, I didn't want to be yet another reason for his heart to keep aching, he had been through enough, or to become a part of the seemingly never ending list of things that weighted on his conscience.

"Why didn't you tell me?" if you had, you could have lived the rest of your life knowing your secret would be safe."

His voice was cold, detached; he was weighing me, analyzing my every word and move. He was not my friend then, he was a shinobi. He would evaluate the information he had been given and with it, choose the best course of action. He would consider every possible scenario, putting aside all sentiment and becoming the cool headed, sharp minded shinobi he pretended not to be.

"You are one of the few people who could have talked me out of it. I didn't want you to."

He remained silent. I didn't not mind, it gave me time to think myself. Kakashi was not a man of few words, but he never spoke if he had nothing relevant to say. He knew words were as powerful as any kunai. He had had to live with the weight of his words for most of his life, and I knew he didn't want to add to that list.

Time passed slowly, and the wind blew. Kakashi's silver hair shone under the sun, and my curls got even messier. Birds chirped, and the smell of freshly mowed grass mixed with that of a restaurant down the street. It had taken a while, but the heightened vibrancy of the world seen through a Sharingan now seemed to make it more beautiful rather than overwhelming. Images were extremely sharp, colors were as vibrant as they came, and movements were predictable. Patterns were clear, faces distinct and unforgotten.

"You should turn yourself in," He said at last "not now, but when the new Hokage is elected, if it doesn't end up being Elder Shimura, of course. You still have Shisui's letter and manage to convince Orochimaru to vouch for you, you might be spared the death sentence and life as a rogue."

I turned to him. He looked vacant, unfeeling.

"Why are you giving me advice? And what makes you think I'd go rogue?"

He showed me his most plastic eye-smile and then put his arm around my shoulders.

"What makes you think I'd let you die?"

…

I sat outside ANBU HQ, letting the last rays of sunshine warm my skin before my night shift started. I missed it. I missed the sun in my face, the breeze in my hair, the smell of wet grass in the training fields in the morning. I missed team eight, Hana, Sasuke, Naruto. I missed being just Uchiha Akane.

Footsteps as silent as anyone could make them, approached me from behind. This wouldn't have phased me if it weren't for the fact that they were accompanied by the muted thud of a crane. And I knew exactly who it was.

"Uchiha-san, what a pleasant surprise to find you here. Is your shift about to start?"

To anybody who didn't know him well enough, he would have just seemed like a frail old man with too heavy a job for his age. But I knew better than to underestimate him.

"Elder Shimura, I know not to believe anything could surprise you."

He chuckled.

"Fair enough, I will get to the point then, and take no more of your time."

I opened my eyes and looked at him. I did not need the Sharingan to see underneath his mask. He was dangerous alright.

"Sasuke is graduating the academy soon; I wanted you, as head of the clan to let him know the branch of ANBU under my command would be more than willing to take him in as an apprentice."

He said this slowly, as if explaining it to a child, and even had the nerve to smile, like he was doing me a favor, like what he was offering was an honor, a one in a lifetime opportunity. He had the nerve to come to me and threaten to take the last member of the family I had left. He had the nerve to smile pleasantly all the while through. Oh, he was asking for it, and I would give him the fight he wanted. I would struggle, I would bleed, I would tear my hair out in frustration but I would win, and he would die.

"Sasuke's dream is to be a part of a team with his friends for as long as he can, and when he becomes chunin, he will ask Kakashi-senpai to mentor him. I do appreciate your offer, Elder Shimura, It is very generous of you."

I was tired, enemies kept appearing left and right, I couldn't seem to catch a break, and still I had to find Itachi and bring him back. Kami knew I missed him. I had rarely thought of him until Orochimaru-san made contact with me. It had driven me crazy to not know why he'd done it, so I'd avoided thinking about it at all. But that all changed in Kusa, and from then on, he'd been always in my thoughts. Was he taking care of himself? Was he eating, sleeping properly? Knowing him, the answer would have been no, and even if it didn't put me at ease at all, all I could do was smile fondly.

"I believe it is too early to decline such an offer, Uchiha-san. Sasuke might change his mind, circumstance might interfere…"

Another threat.

I sighed.

"I know how the shadow ranks work, Elder Shimura, be it ANBU or ROOT. I will not allow Sasuke to go through what I did. Not even should circumstance interfere."

His smile didn't falter, but he did not like my answer. His body didn't tense, his jaw didn't clench, the grip on his crane didn't tighten. But in his eye I could see the fire my defiance had ignited. I had dared him to try and take Sasuke from my cold, dead hands, and he had accepted.

"We will see."

The wind blew once again, the last rays of sunshine disappeared behind the horizon, I took a deep breath and put my mask on. Danzo had disappeared in a blur of dust and leaves, and with his silent departure came the dreadful feeling I got every time before a fight.

Fear.

Leaving the world of the living behind once again, I stepped into the shadows to become a monster the old and the young feared equally:

The Shinigami.

….

Team 7 had been training for three hours, and it was now eight am. A three way fight was the first exercise of the day after the warm-up stretches. Expectedly, Sakura was the most flexible, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out, both Sasuke and Naruto were not far behind. Both boys had overcome their prejudice and embraced the fact that brute force was not all there was to strength. Kakashi had made sure of that. Team 7 had a very good physical foundation to build up from. They all had the potential to become brilliant, but when he trained me, Kakashi realized shinobi could become good only by building their ability from the very base up. Still, the foundation needed to be a solid one for things to go smoothly.

So here was Team 7 working together to try and land a blow on their sensei. They weren't brilliant, but they were not mediocre, not even close. I could see all of them redistributing their chakra to keep their balance while fighting Kakashi. Sasuke was not using his Sharingan, which was a sign he was working hard not to depend on it in the future in case of chakra exhaustion.

Sakura, was constantly storing chakra and sending it to her hands, but saving it for genjutsu attacks, or so had Kakashi told me. Naruto had been meditating every day to try and control the Kyubi's impulses. They were doing well, they were making progress, and they were a well oiled machine, a functional team. They complemented each other, and it made me happy to know both my boys had someone they could depend on without question. But it saddened me to think that it wouldn't last much longer. Good things in shinobi life never did.

I hated that who we were was the very reason they wouldn't enjoy life for long. Many said the Uchiha were cursed, to me, we were just unlucky enough to be born with very good eyesight, easily wounded egos, and a loyalty that got us killed more often than not. Whatever the reason behind it was, it angered me that I couldn't protect my otouto from the vices and injustices of shinobi life. I knew he would have to protect himself and manage things on his own sooner rather than later, but I wanted to postpone it and give him time to just be himself without being tainted by the world more than he had already been.

"Do you approve of my training methods or should I give them the same exercises I gave you?" I didn't flinch when Kakashi's shadow clone appeared behind me. "Sakura would survive them out of sheer spite, Naruto and Sasuke I'm not so sure."

He liked to poke fun at my protectiveness of the boys and made it a habit of trying to get under my skin by implying they were not up to his standards. Which was a downright lie. He had become just as attached as I had.

"Danzo came to me a few days ago to offer Sasuke a place in ROOT once he makes chunin," Kakashi tensed. "I refused him. He didn't like it."

In the distance, the sound of kunai clashing and fighting continued. My cloak shielded me from the crisp air. The shade of the canopy I was under hid my presence quite well, and with Team 7 being the only eyes around, Kakashi and I could speak freely.

"Do we have a plan?" He asked, knowing full well I never spoke about important matters without at least one plausible course of action.

"We do, but none of those involved will particularly like it."

He took a deep breath in and put both his hands in his pockets as he leaned heavily against a nearby tree.

"When do we ever get what we want?" He sighed. "If we wanted an easy life, we could have stayed civilians, don't you think?"

I watched as Naruto fell over with laughter when Sakura managed to land a punch on Sasuke's gut and made him double over gasping for air. I smiled to myself. It reminded me of the first time I managed to Hit Hotaka, Taka had teased him for over a week.

"You say that like we had a choice, Senpai." He chuckled.

"You sound bitter, Kouhai. Regretting life choices today, are we?" he teased.

This had become our dynamic. I spoke about life, he teased; I cooked, he ate; I came back from an extended mission, our roles reversed. Kakashi was someone I hid nothing from, someone whom I trusted with the darkest part of my soul. After all, he'd been through it all himself, and would never judge me for the atrocious things I'd done in the name of Konoha.

"Oh, shut up, Hatake."

His smile faded.

"So, the plan…"

I sighed.

The plan I'd come up with was not ideal. It would take everything Sasuke held dear away from him. If we did this, he would grow up away from everything he knew. He wouldn't make chunin, he would not get an apprenticeship; he would not see his friends for a very long time, maybe ever again. I hated that I was even considering putting him through this, but my priority was to keep him as safe as I could. And if I had to go to extreme lengths to do so, I would.

"I'm sending him away, where not even Danzo can reach him." I said. "I'm not risking him ending up like Shisui."

Kakashi stared at the profile of my porcelain mask in silence. I could see the way he was going over every possible scenario in his head. He had a vacant look in his eye.

"Do you think Orochimaru will manage to keep Danzo away?"

"He has been so far. I'm counting on him to continue doing so."