The fight is the closest call she's ever had.
Something clearly reflected in her injuries. Broken ribs, ankle, and thigh. A pretty bad concussion. The actual sequence of events comes back to her slowly-side effect of getting kicked in the head by an opponent from the back. Akane had gotten him before she passed out-a concentrated burst of fire she'd been working on, compressed down into pure energy. Not quite cremation-it was the closest to Lightning manipulation she'd managed since her brothers began to badger her to try.
The puff of smoke had let her know she'd failed-that Tobirama Senju might just succeed in taking her life when so many of her clansmen had failed.
It was a bad matchup for her to begin with.
The giant water dragon she'd countered to save what was left of her brothers squad with her blue flames had become steam so hot they'd both been boiled lobster red-not even a full minute into the fight. Akane was too used to burning herself with the technique-her nerves rarely registered the pain. Tobirama Senju had tanked it to get up close and personal with her-which was actually when things had gone in her favor because the initial confrontation with the squad they'd come to save had cost him his sword.
Akane wasn't a nine year old midget anymore. She was still petite, being both a female and only fourteen, and while she might have more trouble against a fully grown man-a teen was well within her fighting weight with a guy who clearly hadn't hit his growth spurt. She'd dominated the taijutsu fight and was pretty sure she'd fucked up his shoulder something fantastic.
She had thought she was about to win when instinct had her disengaging, not quite fast enough to dodge a water bullet completely, sadly. Tobirama had back up of his very own-it turned out. She'd thought that was when her ribs gave. She hadn't let it stop her, summoning up her latest attempt to fire bend.
Akane had gotten better at controlling flames further away from her body, which was much safer for her, and anyone on her side leery of friendly fire. It wasn't great for her enemies because Akane could spit regular fire in a pentacle shape around her and then turn those flames white with heat-even blue, which was significantly harder and only for an instant. But that was all she needed.
Akane had largely stayed behind as a distraction, and she wanted to create the illusion that they could overwhelm her, letting her regular red flames dim down low. She was the more tempting target regardless-she was the only Uchiha Kunochi the Senju knew about.
It would be a boon to take her life.
She reaped theirs instead-her stage play of being overwhelmed by water jutsu went off flawlessly, they stepped in close enough and Akane could turn up the heat in the space between heartbeats. One flicker of chakra and will was all it took for the Senju to be ash in the wind-then Tobirama, who had not taken off like any sensible soul would have, caught her ankle in an earth jutsu Akane had to very carefully torch her way out of-and chakra exhausted as she was-the Taijutsu match between them was no longer in her favor.
She'd been trying to dredge up the chakra for her finishing move after she heard more than felt her thigh break-but the Kagebushin caught her unaware.
It was the last thing she could remember.
She was told afterward that Madara personally carried her back.
And now Akane was in for her longest recovery period to date. It would take her an entire month and a half-about half of what it took a bone to mend even adding the physical therapy to fully recover, compared to her life as Samantha, and what she remembered from falling off the monkey bars when she was six and breaking her wrist.
Chakra did the body good. Akane could never remember having so much as a cold since she'd begun using it at age five. And while she was stuck in bed, it hardly meant she had to be idle.
It gave her time to look into the healing halls, it had been on her list of things to adress for a while now. Mostly Akane had lacked an opportunity, there were factions within the clan that were mostly beholden to themselves and strived to keep it that way.
The Lineage that ran the healing halls privately referred to themselves as the Lasting Embers, something the actual leadership in the clan did not approve of, it was considered anathema to their proper naming traditions, but as the healers-they got away with a lot. Not just turning their nose up at traditional Uchiha things, but it turned out the healing halls were where nepotism ran rampant most of all.
In retrospect, it made sense. There weren't many ways for women to earn rations of their own, being a healer was the most sought after and valued. It elevated their positions, and meant a respectable marriage was guaranteed. The rub was that you had to get a healer to name you their apprentice, and the healers took their pound of flesh in fees.
The woman in charge of the entire place was the Lineage head Rika-who had the vaguely pleasant shark like demeanor Akane remembered from a corporate business woman whose nails she'd done regularly as Samantha.
Rika wasn't particularly interested in talking to Akane about the healing halls, or any improvements she would like to suggest, despite Akanes status as Madaras fiancé. Which meant she was definitely the type to look down on any Uchiha who didn't have the Sharingan.
Akane had been thinking about the best way to approach her with a bribe of a greenhouse solely for medical herbs when Akira made some vague sounding statements about coming across her with her son in law that suddenly made her incredibly accommodating. Akane decided to overlook the blatant black mail and offer the brine anyway to grease the wheels of her improvements. Happy people tended to be more productive regardless. It wasn't terribly difficult to rearrange the apprenticeship system to be supplemented with general basic classes on first aid, adding everything field shinobi where typically taught about first aid on the job by their squad leaders and making it a prerequisite for clan missions.
She managed to push that past the Elders with very minor grumbling because more Uchiha with first aide knowledge meant more Uchiha point blank period. It helped that she'd come up with a boiling chakra trick that sterilized all implements before use. Rika didn't give her the usual bland customer service smile after that.
Pointing out that research and innovation had stagnated in the healing halls didn't make her any friends. Neither did appointing herself the person to change that. But her track record spoke for itself-and the clan heads' children spoke in her favor. Considering Tajima wasn't in the clan, that was all the approval she needed.
So she got her classrooms, and for the first time-official clan administrative power. Akane was excited about the precedent that set for her.
She was quite proud of the system she came up with too.
Having a dedicated teacher for healing basics also freed up competent healers for more time to do research and experiments. Akane decided to go all in on the concept of specialization-she split the apprenticeship system into three tiers, pure beginners that could only be trusted to wash bandages and take notes. Apprentices, who had someone to oversee what few minor duties they could manage on their own, usually burns-fire being as beloved as it was in their clan. Then journeyman, who had to contribute to the clan healing knowledge to graduate to a full mastery, or a head healer, the times being what they were.
Seeing how few actual healers there were in the clan was depressing. But the system where the Lineage kids were walked through the basics and called healers to qualify for full rations thankfully came to an end. It was a lot harder to claim a fourteen year old had contributed significantly enough to the clan to teach and care for others, no matter whose child they were.
It was the first time Akanes interference directly affected a large Lineages interest. Which shouldn't have mattered, except that she found herself alone in the desert on her first paid mission, fairly certain she was going to die.
Her new squad mates, who in retrospect where all Lineage shinobi, had wasted no time in ditching her to fight the platoon on Sand shinobi they'd run into. Akane had killed them, but she'd forgotten what specialty those in the land of sand held-and she found herself poisoned.
Akane knew nothing about poison-all she knew was that she ached, soul deep, and she was too weak to move. She was going to die alone under the hot sun, her corpse lost to the sands. She couldn't do that to her family-but she couldn't move. She couldn't get up-no matter how hard he tried.
Her mind was blurry and indistinct. She was dying.
It was so familiar-she had died before.
She remembered now, what it felt like. Her life slipping away, knowing that if she closed her eyes she'd never open them again. As Samantha-she'd made her peace with that.
As Akane-she wasn't reconciled. She had too much to live for, a family to care for, a clan to drag kicking and screaming into caring properly for its people. No matter how much it hurt, death was a luxury Akane couldn't couldn't afford.
But she couldn't move. She could only lie there-hoping and praying someone or something would save her. Would give her a chance to go home again. Until she couldn't even do that anymore.
She had no strength left.
Akane closed her eyes.
X
I told y'all you wouldn't like me. Our girls really out here taking these L's and she ain't got a Biju to mitigate any of it.
But once again war is hell is one of those strong underlying themes in this story.
Next up we get to see Cho's take on things.
