Hello! I hope you'll like this chapter!

Disclaimer: I own the OCs in this fic, the rest is Masashi Kishomoto's. Sorry for any spelling mistakes or any OCCness.

Character age:

Akane, Itachi: 22

Naruto, Sasuke: 16/17

Shisui: 25

Kakashi: 31

"So war is here," Uryuu-sama repeated quietly, sensei and I in front of him. He looked at me. "And I'm guessing you'll be on the battlefield?" I nodded.

"I have assigned two of her students, now Swordsmen of the Mist, to your protection. Akane is essential on the battlefield for the same reasons you wanted her to be your security." He sighed.

"Of course, I understand. I will get in touch with the Daimyo of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind to discuss funding."

"Thank you," sensei thanked him as we both bowed.

"I won't keep you here any longer, I am sure you are busy." We got up and left.

Most ANBU and jounins were running around the country to spot Iwa-nin, while chuunins were sent to the main island cities to patrol and sometimes get materials or weapons. Genins were mainly posted in Kiri and were helping with the war effort while not being sent out to battle.

Making seals for so many hours a day was making it so much more real. Sasuke was helping me and going on patrols too while Kakashi was working with sensei on strategies. Truth be told, I didn't see much of them. We had news from Konoha saying there had not been any big encounter yet.

Once back home, I shrugged off my flack jacket. I was back to wearing the regular jounin uniform and had cut my hair. It was down the middle of my back but I would be fighting a lot, so I had cut it to shoulder-blades level. If Itachi saw that he'd pout, the guy had some real attachment to me having long hair for some reason.

I took a deep breath, burying the longing I felt. We left a month ago. I was missing Itachi like crazy, like Naru, and Mom, and everyone. I couldn't properly enjoy reuniting with everyone here either because of the context.

A week later, I was running through the swamps with Dai and Suigetsu. One of our own had been taken by a group of Iwa-nin. We were still the best infiltration team in Kiri, and while Mangetsu was gone, Suigetsu had been with us long enough to fill in the gap well enough. It would never be the same, but when it was needed, he'd come with us now he was a jounin.

Anyway, from what our Intel told us, they were near to coast to the south, ready to leave. We stopped near a village and Suigetsu went to the river, diving in it. We all had chakra concealing seals on, and I took my contact seal. Suigetsu would find a good spot to place a marker and use the seal to tell us it was done.

He did it twenty minutes later. I grabbed Dai and teleported us there. Suigetsu joined us quickly while I scanned the area. I signed to them I could feel around twenty Iwa shinobi, three quarters being chuunin while the rest were jounin and close to our comrade. It was nighttime and a little misty, like most nights in the swamps on the main island. Dai left to go closer to the target, his oinin days more than useful for this situation. He had a marker on him anyway, like Suigetsu.

Now, the thing we wanted the most was to kick them out of the country. Them running back to the Tsuchikage with their tails between their legs would be way more satisfying and make a better statement than just killing them.

I signed this to Suigetsu, who sighed but nodded nonetheless. We split up, going for the opposite sides as went back to the river and I used the darkness and mist to move.

"How loud do you think she'll scream once the Captain is done with her?" I heard a shinobi asked his buddy. The other one just grinned.

"I hope we can have a good show." They busted into laughter.

I threw a kunai in front of them. Before they could utter a word, I teleported, grabbed their neck and froze them to death. It wasn't long before I heard a yell. Suigetsu had started.

Lights were turned on everywhere. I located Dai's chakra. It was still calm and smooth like water, so he was okay. I cracked my neck and took my club as Iwa shinobi saw me. Now, in spite of being at home, they mainly used Doton so they could change the field to their advantage. Earth was strong against Water, weak against Lightning, but I didn't want to use Sasuke's Chidori.

"Wait isn't that…" one of them started before I used the Hidden in the Mist Technique.

Silent Killing should do, while incapacitate them and not kill them. I didn't even use the Hiraishin, just the body-flicker to make it quicker. It was over in a matter of seconds. I blinked at the boulders coming my way though, breaking through the mist. I left explosive seals beneath my feet and body-flickered away, making the seals explode when the boulders were above them.

They fell to the ground.

A man and a woman were in front of me.

"Look at the club, there's no doubt. It's the Uzumaki trained by the Fourth Mizukage." I stared at them with calculating eyes.

Jounins. Both of them.

"Let's be extra cautious," the kunoichi said, only for the shinobi to grin madly at me, slamming his hands on the ground.

As it started to move, I spat water from my mouth, turning it into a mirror.

"Suiton: Water Mirror Technique!" I lowered it with the club, a replica of the shinobi using the same jutsu appearing.

They clashed. The kunoichi ran around me and I shot her a quick look. She threw shurikens at me but I had already body-flickered to the shinobi, who barely ducked my kick. I didn't want to show the Hiraishin as I didn't know if Iwa was aware I had it. I also didn't want to use my Ice Release too much, even if the field...damn it was begging me to, it would be over in a matter of seconds.

The shinobi was good in taijutsu and used an Earth jutsu to make his fists stronger, but I grabbed one of them, putting an Immobility Seal on him.

"What was his name, Gari? He used the Bakuton and taijutsu and was part of the Explosion Corps, right?" I asked the shinobi quietly. He gulped.

"What is it to you!?" I closed my eyes for a second and wiped away the spit on my face.

"It's just laughable. The Bakuton." He blinked and yelled in pain when I blew his hand up. "Really, really laughable."

"You bi…" I knocked him out by hitting him in the face hard with my club, breaking his jaw, chin, whatever it was.

I turned my feet to face the kunoichi, frozen on her spot. I blinked lazily at her. She gulped and looked around her comrades, none of them able to help her.

"Listen here, I have a message for the Tsuchikage." She clenched her fists. "He wants a war? He's going to get it, and it won't be pretty for him. Now we're going to burn this outpost to the ground. I strongly advise you to leave or we'll burn all of you too." She stared at me for a few seconds and looked around once more.

Then, without a word, she made clones, got her comrades and ran away toward the sea. I felt the ones near Suigetsu retreating too, at least those still alive as a few were dead.

I teleported to Dai and raised a brow at the Captain, senbon in his neck. Dai seemed fine apart from the way his hand was glowing green above his left arm.

"Ruka's fine," he told me. Indeed, Ruka was fine. Probably still scared, but fine.

"I'm sending you away, we'll join you once we've cleaned the area." Dai nodded and I sent these three to the hideout, where Sasuke and his sharingan were waiting for some interrogation.

Once we were done, we went back to the hideout. Sasuke was making red circles on a map of the country, speaking quietly with Dai and Ganryuu-san. I immediately joined them and frowned. There were a dozen of circles on the main island.

"The shinobi?"

"Dealt with," Ganryuu replied curtly. I nodded.

"Uzu, you go with Sasuke, we'll stay here and organize a few squads." It was protocol from sensei. Dai, myself, Kakashi and a few other experienced jounin were allowed to make decisions in some cases like this one.

I nodded at my teammate. I put my hand on Sasuke's shoulder and teleported home. I wanted to ask him how he felt, but the grim and distant look in his eyes was enough to make me keep my mouth shut. I just put my hand in his hair, which was getting harder and harder as I was afraid he was hitting a growth spurt. Seriously, I had to raise my head more and more to look at him and talk to him.

"You're short nee-san," he told me suddenly, looking down at me. I twitched.

"It's always nice to hear." He shrugged. "I can still kick your ass."

"For how long?" I opened my mouth, but closed it immediately.

"I banged your brother." Instead of blushing or anything, he just raised a daring brow.

"I'd say it's the other way around." I ended up as a blushing mess, stepping as far as I could from him.

"Are you untouchable now!? It used to disgust you!" He blinked.

"Yeah, but then Naruto had the great idea to… 'borrow' some books of yours." I stared at him with bulging eyes. "Hey, we're seventeen you know."

"Don't remind me, you used to be adorable and now you're…"

"Hot and handsome, no need to remind me," he replied with a smug smirk, enjoying riling me up too much. "We need to give our report." I rolled my eyes and walked up to his side.

Having Kakashi and Sasuke around, the teasing there was between the three of us, it was really helping me keeping my head on my shoulders.

We were in the middle of our report when a chuunin busted in the room, telling us there were foreign forces in the village. I paled, sensei asking him were. I exchanged a look with her when he told us in was the hospital basement, the both of us knowing fully well what was stored there since the First's era.

"Go." I left in an Hiraishin. I had still had markers all around the village after all, and pretty much around the Main Island of the Land of Water, one marker on the other ones.

When I was in the hospital, it was chaos. I went straight to the basement, barking orders around me to activate the protection seals for the patients in recovery, especially in the war ward. As I reached a dark corridor, I gritted my teeth at the broken seals.

They were old, but good, and it wasn't as if anyone knew about this…

"Uzumaki-san!" an Anbu said as I arrived. I walked between him and his comrade, looking around.

"Have you taken a look around already?"

"For the most known ones."

Kiri was secretive. Oinin dealt with missing-nins' bodies, destroying everything related to them. What not many people knew was that, you had to have a medical check-up once you became a genin. Blood samples were taken.

Then, they were stored there for safe-keeping so that the village still had something related to its shinobi if it came to the worst. They would have remains of...the source of kekkai genkai for instance.

It was this particular room that was broken into.

"And?" They shared a look. "And?"

"Several were stolen...including Hozuki Mangetsu, the Yondaime, the Nidaime and…" I frowned, my cold eyes never leaving him. "And Uzumaki Fubuki." I gritted my teeth.

"People went after the culprit?"

"Hatake Kakashi is among them." I nodded.

I sealed the room back, giving them both a key before teleporting to Kakashi. He wasn't even surprised. Naoto was there as well, dead serious, and a few other shinobi.

"What's the situation?"

"They're trying to leave the country. There is a storm approaching in this direction, they must have a way to leave nonetheless." I nodded at Naoto.

We all sped up, which they must have felt because they sped up as well. The thing was...I could feel their chakra but...others too? It was a very weird feeling.

"Naoto…"

"I know, it's weird."

"I can't smell them either," Kakashi stated seriously. "Whoever they are, they knew how to get in and get out of Kiri."

"Possibly from other villages as well," I added. I took a deep breath when the humidity of the mist started to change for the smell of salt from the sea.

We were almost there. The grass turned to sand when there was a screeching sound and a blinding light. I gritted my teeth and placed my hands on my ears, struggling to keep my eyes opened. I thought I saw a shadow and threw a kunai. My left arm was tingling as well and I looked at it as I could. It was...strange.

Then, like it appeared, whatever was blocking us disappeared and we were left on the shore, the waves gently hitting the sand. I went to the water and picked up my kunai. I made a face at its wetness, borderline stickiness. It had not touched the sea so...why was it like that?

"He's gone." I looked at the calm sea when Naoto said that.

Stealing blood samples from dead shinobi...Sweat rolled down my back.

The only reason...would be for the Edo Tensei. It was the only reason I could think of.

"Should we pursue?" a jounin asked us.

"No, with the storm it would only result in useless casualties," Naoto replied immediately. "We need to go back and tell the Mizukage we failed catching the thief."

I stared at the sea, hearing them speaking in my back. The wind was blowing softly. Eventually, Kakashi walked up next to me.

"Edo Tensei?" he asked me in a whisper.

"I think so." I looked at him. "They have Fubuki's DNA." He widened his eye for a second before a harsh and cold glint replaced the surprise. "It's…"

"Do you know who used it?" I slowly shook my head.

"Unfortunately...I was never told this."

I just knew the Edo Tensei was stopped thanks to the reanimated old Itachi and Izanami but...Sasuke always stayed...vague about this. All of them did.

"Let's go." I nodded and followed Kakashi back to Kiri.

Sensei sent a message to Suna and Konoha asap once we reported everything.

Fubuki, Mangetsu, Yagura and many others...would they really be brought back?

Would Obito allow anyone he worked with to bring Fubuki back? Who knew, maybe they'd go for Rin's grave next? She wasn't...a powerful kunoichi as she died young but...well I guess unless they knew it was Obito, they wouldn't go for her as a mean of pressure or anything?

I debated whether or not I should train a little before the end of the day, but Kakashi's firm hand on my shoulder chose for me and I went home.

Things sped up. We were sent to Iwa outposts to deal with them as quickly as we could. It was like an endless mission. I'd leave for a week or two with a squad, do it, screams filling my brain and my nightmares, then go home to avoid sleeping so I'd spend a lot of time training or at the hospital. I was at a point where I was almost in auto-pilot. It wasn't like in the Bloody Mist but...unfortunately, our country was once more dirtied with blood.

"Dai's squad came back," sensei told us, as in Kakashi, Sasuke and I, when we were called in her office. "Apparently, there is an important outpost on Juhyou Island. As it is mostly inhabited, I think it's fairly recent."

"When you say 'important', how much is it?" Kakashi asked her. She pursed her lips.

"Mostly jounin. The Tsuchikage apparently sent his most trusted shinobi there." I looked down. "I'll add Karin to your team, she's the best sensor in the village now. I need you to scout the area. Size, how many of them there is, geographical situation of the camp, weapons, strategies, anything. However, do not attack them. You are to avoid encounters as much as possible." We all nodded.

"Should I go get Karin from the hospital?" Sensei shook her head.

"I will send someone, just get ready."

The next morning we were off. Picking a place deserted since the Purges was smart but...Juhyou Island out of the whole country? I mean, if any Iwa-nin were at my Chuunin Exams then they should know…

Was Obito behind this?

They all shivered when we reached the island. Now while there were trees and snow, the north of the island was very tundra-like, I wouldn't be surprised if they established the outpost there.

"I have a map of the island, Karin, Sasuke, you're taking it with you."

"We're splitting up?" my fellow Uzumaki asked me. I nodded.

"We need a rough idea of where the outpost is, but once it's done we need data from it." I pulled a small book from my back pouch.

The Uzukage left me a lot of information about the Shinigami, my seal and such, but also a lot about Uzumaki seals period. With what I had told him, he decided to leave me many seals regarding war they used themselves in the past. It included scooting seals. Basically, the seals would end up making a zone and then connect to each other, analyzing anything with chakra in it.

I unsealed a scooting seal and replicated it quickly before handing it to Sasuke.

"I trust you both to make others," I told them. They nodded and Sasuke summoned Garuda, chakra concealing seals on them already, like Kakashi and I. "Be careful." I adjusted my earpiece, like them.

"You too." On these words from Sasuke, they took off. Kakashi summoned Pakkun and we left as well.

It was a swift ordeal. We found the outpost after two days and started doing the seals. As I had thought, they were in the tundra area of the island. Once the last seal done, we went toward the ghost village my clan was from and stopped in a vast plain nears it. My toes didn't even react to the snow beneath and I looked up. The sky was cloudy. I spotted Sasuke and Karin getting closer to us, but I frowned at the sky.

A storm was brewing. From the humidity, the wind slowly rising, the clouds...a snow storm was coming.

"We're done." I nodded at them and activated the seals with the tiger sign. Kakashi had a scroll opened and was watching the data writing itself.

"Shit!" the scroll fell on the ground when the writings started to change. I knelt to it and frowned.

I opened a storage seal, releasing a flame that burned the scroll.

"We failed, they noticed us and hijacked the seals." I turned toward Karin, ignoring Sasuke's frown. "Karin, I want your sensing range as big as possible. Pakkun, can you stay for a little longer?"

"Sure, what do you need me for?"

"Keep track of any scent that enters a five-kilometer radius." I removed the snow from the ground with my shoe and left an Hiraishin Marker. "We're getting out of here." We ran away.

"We run and hide away from them or go back?" Kakashi asked me seriously.

"I say we hide and wait to see if they spot us," I replied, looking at him from the corner of my eyes. "They know we're here, but not where. I'd rather be sure the mission is a complete failure before going back. And anyway." I looked up. "A snowstorm is coming, they'll be stopped by the weather."

"It's good for us to come up with something," Sasuke added. I nodded.

We ran for an hour, during which the wind picked up and snow started to fall, the temperature dropping. Karin narrowed her eyes and pointed in front of her.

"There's a cave, let's go there and wait for the storm to pass by!" I nodded.

I put barrier seals at the entrance of the cave, Sasuke's mixing a genjutsu in it. Once a fire lit up and the four of us around it, I sighed deeply.

"How could they hijack the seals?" Karin wondered out loud for all of us.

"Well, there's a small probability they have an Uzumaki around or a very competent seal user. That, or a very good sensor who felt the seals being activated. Or...one of the seals was not done right." Sasuke twitched at that and he exchanged a look with Karin. "Guys?"

"Shit," Sasuke cursed under his breath, running a hand on his face. Karin looked down.

"What happened?"

"Someone must have noticed us, but anyway there were people coming our way when we were doing the last seal," Karin explained. "We…"

"I made it quick and we left," Sasuke finished for her, frustrated. "I fucked up."

"Well, it's useless to focus on who to blame or not now," Kakashi retorted with an eye-smile. "We need to figure out a new plan."

"Them having a sensor good enough to notice these two with my seals on is an issue," I stated flatly, crossing my arms and legs. "We need to think they may know who we are precisely then."

"They'd send shinobi according to us and what they know about us," Kakashi finished. I nodded.

"If that's the case, then we may need to ask for back-up."

"We're in the middle of a snowstorm," Karin pointed out.

"Yeah, so we'd need someone who could spot us easily," I replied with a smile for her. She stared at me, then looked at Kakashi and Sasuke, also staring at her.

"Me!? You want to send me back when I'm the only medic!?"

"I have seal…"

"It's not the same!"

"It's a risky choice, but not necessarily a bad one. We'd favor power instead of safety though."

"If you have another plan Kakashi, then please tell us," I told him. "I don't like that either but…" He raised his hand.

"I would have if I had another plan." He looked back at Karin. "Karin-san, I know as a medic you don't like this plan, but it may be the best we can come up with in the little time we have." She pursed her lips and shot Sasuke a look. He just looked away. She sighed and stretched out her hand to me.

"Fine, send me to the hideout then." I smiled apologetically at her. "If one of you gets critically injured, I will make the recovery very painful."

"Yes Ma'am." I hiraishined her to the hideout.

"What now?" Sasuke asked us.

"Whatever happens, I'll go first. This kind of weather is ideal for me but will kill you quickly. It's only a matter of tracking their moves. If we're lucky...we won't have to engage before back-up is here." I went to the back of the cave and summoned Seihitsu. He laid down immediately.

"Did I become invisible or something girly?" Pakkun asked me with a frown of his dog face. I scratched him under the chin.

"Of course not, but two noses are better than one." And the wolf's sense of smell was usually more developed than dogs'. Of course we were talking about ninja summons so it was probably different. "Sorry for wounding your pride." Pakkun just walked away to stop in front of my summon's face.

"I still have more experience than you pup," he told Seihitsu, who nodded quietly.

I shot Kakashi an amused look. Pakkun was so small next to Seihitsu, it was funny to see him act like this.

"Anyway, both of you need to keep your noses sharp," Kakashi reminded them, probably with a smirk.

"You don't need to tell me Kakashi!" Pakkun was so funny.

Now was time to wait for Iwa to move.

Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought of this chapter! Thanks to Masaya Daiji for the review! Just a reminder, Danzo died at the beginning of the fic, and Hanzo, much like in canon, died by Nagato's hand shortly after Yahiko died, so they're both six feet under already.

Bye!