She came back to her senses, an unmistakable sound of fire crackling nearby. She blinked groggily for a few moments, trying to adjust her eyes to the half lit forest. Here eyes scanned around, searching for her sensei with whom she had embarked on the trip. Hoisting herself up, she pumped some chakra into her eyes, trying to get a sharper image with her Sharingan.
Her head snapped to her right, hearing a gasp. She reached her kunai holster on instinct, only to find it missing. She shuffled feeling his entire pressure crash down on her, daring her to make a move. It didn't affect as much, since she had experienced her sensei, her parents and Otsutsuki pressures. This sure was very heavy, but her senses for such had dulled after staying in her sensei's presence.
"Who are you?", she asked cautiously to the teen, ready to perform hand signs any instant. Narrowing her eyes, she spotted the familiar three tomoes staring back at her. "How do you have the Sharingan?"
The teen frowned, his brows furrowing in confusion. "I should ask you the same. I am sure my Otouto is the only other Uchiha alive right now. I had killed everybody else five years ago", the teen replied. The girl's eye twitched violently at the information.
This man was the reason why she hadn't been ever able to meet her Uncle Itachi. This man was the reason for her father's destroyed childhood. The reason why only her and her father were the only Uchihas alive. She growled lowly in anger, her Sharingan transforming into an eight-pointed star. She ignored the impressed rise in brows from the teen, before angrily slashing her hand across through thin air.
She gave a tiny smirk at the illusion breaking around her, before turning around to face the real deal. "You can't catch me in a genjutsu with such a simple technique, you bastard!", she mocked, frowning at the pair in black cloaks and red clouds.
"That was impressive. Nobody other than those three have broken out of this genjutsu. You make that four. Not to mention, your Sharingan. It isn't just a normal Mangekyo,, is it?", the teen asked as his lips twitched upwards. Another growl escaped from the girl's throat.
"I don't know why you killed my Clan. Why did you keep only my father alive all those years ago. I won't ask you why you did that. But, I won't forgive you for ruining my father's childhood!", she screamed before charging at the pair. The teen frowned, while the taller fish-faced person gave a toothy grin.
"Heh! She's an idiot, isn't she?", the taller man remarked, readying his sentient sword. He knew the seriousness of the girl breaking through his partner's genjutsu. He couldn't afford to play if he wanted to live this fight through. He himself had been made a laughing stock under that genjutsu.
The teen beside him didn't move an inch after the girl had started charging. It didn't make sense on what she said. He was sure she had appeared out of nowhere. When she had been found by him and his partner, her chakra had popped up from nothing. Not to mention, what she was saying. He was sure that only his younger brother was the only alive Uchiha beside him and Madara. According to the girl, she had a father, whose childhood had been ruined because of him. It didn't make any sense. The girl was sixteen if he were to assume. He didn't know any Uchiha who even closely resembled the girl. And five years ago, she had to be eleven.
A thought passed his mind. Was she Madara's daughter? No. Even that didn't make sense. If she was so much talented in genjutsu, he was sure that she would have been a part of Akatsuki, if she was Madara's daughter. He was sure, and he had checked twice that every Uchiha had been killed other than his younger brother. There was no father-daughter pair alive from the Uchiha Clan. And even if he had by chance missed them, Hiruzen would have notified him.
Destroyed her father's childhood? He didn't even know what she meant by that. You were considered an adult in the Uchiha Clan when you passed the Academy. That meant usually twelve years. Meaning her father was less than twelve when he killed the entire Clan. No. That wasn't possible. She was sixteen. Two years younger than himself. Had he done something in his first two years of life? About which he had no memory about? Had he gotten someone mistakenly exiled from Konoha for something he had done when he was a toddler.
No. He would have known about that. And there wasn't any rogue Uchiha other than Madara five years ago. For the first time in his life, he had no idea what the girl was yapping about. And he had no idea what to do with her! And who in the world was she in the first place?!
"Kisame, don't kill her. I want to know something", he remarked. His partner just grunted, before swing his sword in an predictable arc towards the girl. He had an urge to smack his forehead. 'You don't go swinging such a huge sword against an agile shinobi out for the blood like this girl in a predictable arc, Kisame! She isn't going to pass the chance to send you to afterlife!'.
The girl jumped above the sword just as expected, before using Kisame's face as a stepping stone and propelling herself towards him. He suppressed an urge to smirk at Kisame's shout of fury at the disrespect, before his eyes widened at the chakra gathering in her right arm which she had reared.
Using a seal-less Shunshin, he teleported himself away, dodging the punch by an inch. He gaped openly at the destruction which the punch caused. He gulped slightly seeing the girl glare at him from the twenty feet smoking crater. Kisame looked unsurely at his partner.
"Itachi, are you still sure you want her alive?", he asked perplexed. "I want to kill her for stepping on my face, but even if she touches us, we are definitely going to the afterlife".
Before he could reply, he looked towards the girl who had just gasped and had a disbelieving expression on her face.
"Itachi? As in Uchiha Itachi?", the girl asked with a frown, earning a similar expression from the pair. The name Uchiha Itachi was quiet well known. Scratch that. Everybody in the Elemental Nations knew who Uchiha Itachi was. There was no way this girl didn't know about him. He was one of the most feared people out there, and one of the few handful S-Rank missing-nins. He watched as the girl shook her head to herself. "You can't be. Papa said that you had died with the rest of the Clan when he was seven".
No. It wasn't farfetched. The Yondaime had proved that time can be overcome through seals. He figured if seals could be used this way too. He frowned a bit. If it was possible, he was sure the Yondaime, the greatest fuinjutsu masters of all time, could have devised a seal for time-travel. This wasn't seals. It was pure space-time ninjutsu like Madara's Kamui.
"Are you Sasuke's daughter?", Itachi asked carefully. If she really was, that meant his brother was safe. But why would he tell her own daughter that he had died on that night. What had happened in the future?
The girl gaped as her Sharingan faded away. "You really are Itachi-oji-san!", she remarked, before nodding slowly, before frowning. "But it doesn't make sense! If you killed our Clan, why does Papa hold you in high regard?! Why does sensei hold you in high regard?! Why would you kill our Clan?!"
Itachi frowned at the information. Someone had leaked out the reason for the massacre. Hiruzen would never. He was a man of his word. The Elders couldn't afford to do so. Considering the reports he had received from Hiruzen, Sasuke would have killed the Elders if they had said this. Did someone else know other than themselves? If yes, then it was concerning.
"Have you travelled to the past by yourself?", Itachi asked ignoring her niece's question. Kisame gave an incredulous stare at his partner, gripping his sword tighter.
The girl shook her head in denial. "Sensei has come with me too. But it seems that he was transported in his own body, while I ended up here", she replied. "You still haven't answered my question, oji-san".
"I intend to take it to my grave with me, but it seems someone told it to Otouto and your sensei", he replied stoically. He craned his head sideways. "Who is your sensei? More important, what is your name?"
"Sarada. Uchiha Sarada. And my sensei is the Nanadaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto", the girl replied. Itachi rose brows at the name, while Kisame frowned. That meant problem for the Akatsuki. They were going to deal with a Jinchuriki who had risen to the level of a Kage. Itachi nodded slowly after a few moments, before turning to Kisame.
"We may need to get in contact with the Kyubi Jinchuriki it seems. This news is troubling", he stated with a frown. He ignored the raised brow and the incredulous stare from his niece.
"Even if you are powerful, you are nowhere near sensei in terms of strength. Trust me. I have seen him beat a hundred missing-nin by himself without breaking a sweat. Not that they were that powerful, but he and Papa were ploughing through them", Sarada warned with a shrug. "In our history books, it is said that sensei and Papa were the strongest shinobi after the Rikodo Sennin. During the Fourth War, only those two and the reanimated Hokages were standing up to the Akatsuki, while nobody from the Allied Shinobi Forces of the Five Villages was capable of it".
That seemed to get the attention of the pair. So there was a War in the near future. Where all the Hidden Villages fought together. Itachi and Kisame wondered what convinced the stubborn asses of Ōnoki and Ay. And what Sarada said before that, meant that the Akatsuki was totally fucked. Yep. Even if they were S-Ranked nins, they were sure they weren't powerful than the Shodai Hokage Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. Uzumaki Naruto was more powerful than those two.
Kisame gave Itachi a look before shrugging. "It seems that Akatsuki get pounded inwards. Should we warn the others?", he asked, before smirking. "Nah. Let it be. If that Uzumaki Naruto punts Madara's skull in for me, I don't have any problem who wins the War". Itachi rose a brow at the words, before gazing back at his niece.
Before he could say something else, a plant sprouted between them. Kisame and Itachi went immediately on-guard. They would trust that plant not to hear their conversation. They relaxed after the plant gave them an incredulous stare, before looking between the pair and the girl.
"Who is she?", Zetsu blurted out. Itachi gave him an impassive stare, donning his emotionless mask.
"She is just a passerby. She found us here during the night", he answered. The black half looked calculatingly at the girl before shrugging.
"Leader-sama has a mission for you. Someone from the Land of Waves has hired us. He is paying a lot for getting a bridge-builder killed", the black half informed. Itachi nodded.
"Fine. Where do we meet this person who has hired us?", he asked furrowing his brows.
"Find a fat man with a lot of luxury items in Wave", the white half answered, before sinking back into the ground. Kisame and Sarada visibly relaxed after the Zetsu left.
"We were just saved by an hair's breadth", Kisame murmured keeping a hand on his heart. If Zetsu knew about them deserting the Akatsuki, Madara would have been on their tails.
"I hadn't expected to meet Kaguya's Karma this way", Sarada murmured under her breath. Only Itachi heard it, the name raising some flags in his brain. She looked back at Itachi with a smile. "If my memory serves right, Sensei, Papa, Mama and Kakashi-san should be there protecting the bridge-builder. It was their very first C-Rank mission. And... Akatsuki wasn't definitely involved in it".
"We will set out in the afternoon, and escape after the mission", Itachi remarked. He would spend time with her niece after they successfully desert the Akatsuki.