The air around her seemed to freeze. Even the hot puffs of air that escaped her lips turned into muted wisps of steam, dying soon after they exited her mouth.

Akihane wished her emotions could be like the mist. She wished that the anger that ran through her at that moment would leave her body and die down to something far less primal, possibly even less dangerous.

"Hokage? You have to be joking. That's a fool's job, I would never take it."

It had hurt, to hear Tsunade's opinion of the past leader's of Akihane's village. She held all of them in a high respect, some more than others, and she had never though that Tsunade would see it differently. Akihane supposed she shouldn't be surprised, considering what Tsunade had gone through.

"Hiruzen died because he was stupid enough to take the hat back."

"Sensei died for Konoha, you know that Hime-"

"Jiji died for his people. There's nothing stupid about fighting for something you believe in, for the people you believe in, even if it takes your life."

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, Akihane's throat tightening as she tried to push past the shame in her heart. She had been such a stupid child, ignoring the signs and pushing everything aside until her senses were knocked back in to her. c

Her heart hammered as she gazed balefully at the chakra flickering in her palm, the stabilization cancelled out by her rampant emotions and fluctuating chakra. Akihane had to get a hold of herself if she ever wanted to win the bet she ahd made with Tsunade.

"So you were close to Sensei then?"

"He raised me."

"Then why aren't you running away? That village took too much from us. Stop defending it for the pain it caused you."

A bitter laugh threatened to bubble up, but Akihane bit it down as she added more chakra to her palms and forced it to rotate faster.

She hadn't meant to lash out, but she was worn. Tsunade had just happened to push the right buttons to annoy her completely.

Had she really thought that Akihane would allow her to disgrace the Hokage? To even consider an idea was foolish in the albino's opinion. She had voiced as much to Tsunade, which had left her in her current predicament.

Her big mouth had landed her a bet she couldn't possibly refuse, even if it might mean losing something she loved dearly.

"How about we make a deal Gaki. Since you inherited Uncle Tobirama's things, I'll make a bet. If you can successfully master one your 'favored' kages' jutsu, then I'll do whatever you want and turn over Hashirama's necklace to you. However, if you fail…Then I'll be taking back the Senju artifacts you are now in possession of, and I will not be returning to Konoha."

The words of the Sannin had pissed Akihane off, though she had not revealed as much until far later when she had been alone and was able to vent without hurting someone. Tsunade had doubted her and the information presented before her. She hadn't thought about her words and had downplayed Akihane's family.

Akihane bit back a cry as the rasengan in her palm combusted again, the dispel causing chakra burns to grow along her skin.

'I won't let her take the only piece of my family I have…nor will I let her offences to my people slide.'

Akihane thought darkly, raising her hand again so she could restart the process of creating the Rasengan.

All around her, clones had set to work doing the same thing. The Jinchurruki was racing against the clock, two days of her week already over with.

Akihane had a lot of work to do.

She couldn't give in to Tsuande's snarky comments or her hurtful words. The Uzumaki would not allow herself to fail. She would never give up.

Tobirama and Hashirama came to mind, their hurt faces echoing in her head. They had reacted as bad, if not worse, than Akihane had to Tsunade's words. Considering the two had grown up raising the blond, the Uzumaki wasn't surprised at the damage dealt.

The Kage had been hurt, but they still urged her forward in her mind and encouraged her with soft words that calmed her anger.

Chakra danced up her hands, the limbs glowing slightly. Akihane's eyes remained closed as she dealt with the matter.

She would master one of her father's techniques within the time allotted. A few days left from that week, and she would have the technique down.

Her lashes fluttered as she allowed them to open, her gaze settling on her bruised and bloody hands. Chakra burns ran up and down her skin, the burning fading away after hours of abuse. She was certain there would be permanent damage to her hands, though Akihane hardly cared.

The tendrils of chakra that she had seen around her faded into the background, her senses pulling back enough for her to see the real world and not the chakra representation her abilities granted her. Akihane had begun to feel overwhelmed by the chakra in the field.

She took another deep breath and started the process over again, closing her eyes so she could view the chakra again. Her pinpoint focus fluctuated as the information around her rendered, each clone's beacon of power coming into shocking clarity.

The white haze of her chakra settled around her, violet edges twisting across the small clearing she had claimed as her own. Her chakra stabilized around her, the tendrils tightening as they swirled in her palms.

Chakra was alive, each grain of energy pulsing in a way that would cause fluctuations across the whole technique. Often times these fluctuations were too small to cause problems. Sometimes, however, the fluctuations compounded and caused large destabilizations within a technique.

Akihane focused on these fluctuations, mending them into the sphere forming on her palm like a mini-sun.

Her head pounded as she took in all the minor details around her, everything applified a hundred times with her other senses discarded.

A harsh breath left her teeth as they snapped together, each second passing painfully slow. Akihane plunged through the information, sorting it with an efficiency she hadn't shown before acting as the standing Hokage. She found the important bits of information, bringing them forward while everything else was filed away for later consideration.

Shaking occurred in her hands, the skin on her palms tearing as the force of the jutsu pressed down on them. She could feel the chakra tear through her skin and into her chakra pathways, swirling around them.

The Uzumaki had to pause. She knew something that was eerily akin to the way the Rasengan reacted…In fact, it might even stabilize the balance of power and rotation if she could grasp the concept of it.

"That's it." The Uzumaki muttered under her breath. The rasengan in her grasp shattered into shards of chakra, each needle touching the ground briefly before it was absorbed either into her or back into nature. The air was already thick with the potent chakra, the trees and grass nearby thriving from the over-exposure.

Akihane opened her eyes again, slowly this time, letting out a pained gasp as the sun's light spread out around her. Her eyes burned slightly, tears trickling from the corners as she took in the beautiful scenery. Her clones had all stopped their work, turning their heads toward her in worry and wonder.

"Dispell." Akihane ordered with a thick voice, brushing her sleeve over her eyes to rid herself of the tears.

Immdiately the clones started to vanish, their puffs of smoke followed by an increasing pulse in Akihane's head.

The Uzumaki sighed and lowered herself to the gorund, deciding to take a break to sort through the influx of memories.

She pieced each one to other similar concepts, organizing them into neat piles as she glanced over them quickly. A change in pressure here, a difference in rotation there. Compression added to tension, a try at adding a nature affinity and-

Akihane froze, her mind reeling. One of her clones had thought the same thing she had.

It was possible, Kakashi's signature technique told her as much. Was it reachable at her current stage? Akihane wasn't quite sure, but as it stood she really wasn't certain how to move forward with managing power and rotation.

Her hand settled under her chin as she tilted her head, mulling over the idea. If she did what her clone suggested, then she might just be able to balance everything accordingly. In order to test her theory though, she'd have to ask her teacher.

Nodding sharply, the Uzumaki slammed her hand into the ground.

Smoke erupted before her. Red and purple stood out, the slick and small body that had appeared before her straightening.

The amphibian was the same one that she had chosen to send the message to Chiriku at the Fire Temple, a fact that only made Akihane happier. The toad was one of the calmer ones she had the opportunity to meet, and she appreciated his mannerisms around her.

"Hello Kōsuke-San, I wanted to know if you would mind delivering a message to a friend of mine." Akihane asked the toad. She didn't move from her spot cross-legged on the ground, though she did reach into her seal pouch to grab a piece of paper.

"Of course Akihane-Hime." Kōsuke replied smoothly. His tone was deep and it settled the rampant beating of Akihane's heart as she wrote her message.

"Please take this to Kame-San in Konoha. He will either be stationed around my home or the Hokage Tower. If he isn't, just hand the message to Genma-Ni and ask him to pass it along. If you can, stay for a reply, and if not, tell Genma-Ni to send the message ahead to Tanazuki Gai." Akihane informed the toad as she finished the message. She folded it and sealed it with a bit of blood, handing it to the smaller toad.

Kōsuke nodded at her. "It will be done, Akihane-Hime." The toad spoke, raising his webbed hands up to form a seal. In a burst of strange chakra Akihane couldn't identify and a bit of smoke, the Toad vanished in a reverse-summon.

"Now…" Akihane muttered as she slowly stood. Her entire body ached, the muscles in her limbs protesting with each move she made. Despite the discomfort her movement's cause, Akihane moved into some cooldown stretches.

It wouldn't take long before she got her reply. After that, she would prove Tsunade would regret badmouthing the title of Hokage and her precious people. They had upheld the safety of Konoha until their dying breath and deserved far better than what Tsunade had offered them.

I~~~~I

Yamato hadn't done much after Akihane left Konoha. He had been assigned as her guard and teacher, but with her out of the village and under Jiraiya's watch, he had nothing to do. He had been relieved of his ANBU duties the moment he had been assigned to the Uzumaki Head, and was now back to being a Jonin.

"Are you just gonna laze around?" Genma's voice broke through the room, guiding Yamato's gaze to the Tokubetsu Jonin. Genma was working through some stacks of paperwork that had been left over from Akihane's stay, though there wasn't a lot of it considering how much was divided amongst the girl's caretakers.

"Do you need help?" Yamato asked, feeling awkward from where he sat. He noticed the way Genma's face softened at his nervousness, the male reaching to hand over a stack of paperwork.

"Here, file these for me. They are signed off on for now, Akihane seemed to have though ahead regarding that. After that, could you make some tea? I haven't had anything to eat and tea sounds like just the thing for busy work like this."

Yamato nodded at the man, standing slowly with the papers so he could head across the office he and Genma were in and file them away in the cabinets. They weren't in the Hokage's Office, but they were in the tower. For the past few days since Akihane had left, he and the rest of the Hokage Guard Platoon had joined up and worked on the documents left over from the invasion, as well as the other duties given to the Hokage.

Pushing the cabinet closed after he had finished his job, Yamato turned around so he could go and make the tea like Genma had requested. To his surprise, a red form sat behind him, it's hands clasped together while it's beady orange eyes gazed at him with recognition.

"Kame-San?" The toad questioned, earning a faint nod from the former ANBU.

The toad nodded and reached behind his back, tugging a slip of paper sealed with ink from a small tube resting there. Yamato reached to take it, pausing when he recognized the seal work on the top.

"Akihane-Hime requests help. She wanted me to wait for your reply." The Toad told him.

Yamato's brow furrowed as he pressed his chakra into the seal, making sure to mix water with earth just as he had taught Akihane. The seal was one she had thought of in order to keep their correspondences as secret as possible, since no one but them could use Mokuton.

The seal faded into the paper and he unwrapped the letter so he could read the message within.

To his utter surprise, Akihane had asked him a question on the function of a Water Style Technique called Water Vortex, or originally Water Style, Whirlpool.

Sighing, Yamato smiled faintly and took a pen from the desk near him, ignoring the inquiring gaze of his fellow Jonin, before he began to write down the specifics of the Jutsu he had only started teaching his student when she had left.

"Here, return this to her and let her know she can contact me anytime." Yamato informed the toad as he channeled chakra back into the paper, watching silently as the paper snapped back into its folds and glowed, the previous seal rising to the surface once more.

The Toad nodded, accepting the paper as it was handed to him.

"Very well. Goodbye Kame-San." The Toad called, clapping its hands together after it had placed the message back in the tube on its back. Smoke erupted bellow the toad and it vanished without a sound.

I~~~~I

"That son of a-" Itachi tuned out the cussing coming from his partner, looking up at the sky brightening around them.

Omega still seemed upset over their encounter with the Konoha Nin, specifically the Nara Head. He was still hunched over the spot he had dropped into after warping the light around them and transporting them across the forests of Konoha.

He was cradling his arm to his chest, a scowl settling over his features as he took in the damaged dealt to his skin.

He had blocked a direct attack from Shikaku's shadows, and in the process, caused chakra burns.

"Will you be alright?" Itachi questioned the male, earning a dark glare from the young-looking Shinobi.

Shiro Omega, former Heir of the now deceased Shiro Clan, the former partner to Hidan of Yugakure before Pein split the two up and placed Omega with Itachi and Kisame.

Apparently the boy, whose age was lost to Itachi, had his own mission given directly to him by Pein. It was because of this mission that he had joined up with them at all, though Itachi also suspected that Pein still did not fully trust him to handle his village correctly and sent his 'favored' Shinobi out to babysit.

"Yeah, just a bit of Chakra poisoning is all…Stupid Kagebastard. He should know to leave well enough alone after our last fight…" Omega snapped under his breath, his eyes ghosting over the raised and blistering skin on his arm where he had been struck by pure yin chakra. It was oddly surprising to Itachi to see the damage dealt, despite his knowledge of the man's inability to wield the chakra.

According to Omega, Yin chakra happened to be poisonous in it's pure form to him, and it was nearly ineffective in any molded form, such as Itachi's genjutsu. Tsukuyomi was far more advanced than normal genjutsu, so it had more of an effect on Omega, but the man could easily dispel it by offsetting his spiritual balance with his physical balance, resulting in more yang chakra than yin and thus breaking the Jutsu.

"Shouldn't we get going? If we are even going to catch that Jinchuuriki we'll have to hurry, Itachi." Kisame spoke up from behind him, earning a sigh from the Uchiha.

Omega glanced over to Kisame, taking in the bruises forming along the shark-man's blue skin.

"How about you guys go ahead? I can meet up with you if you tell me where." Omega offered, his eyes shifting over to Itachi by default.

Itachi's hackles raised as he registered just what Omega was offering. The man was telling them to go on ahead so he could handle his business without them there to interfere.

So his business had been in Konoha, but now that he knew something, he was planning on finding it elsewhere. Curious, though Itachi would never let on his interest.

"Very well. The Jinchuuriki is heading toward Tanazuki Gai, we will be trying to intercept her before she gets there. If anything, send one your summons ahead to meet us." Itachi told Omega, earning a wave of the white-haired male's uninjured hand.

"Yeah, yeah. Head out. I'll be with you guys again soon." Omega told them, turning toward Konoha with a turn of his lips.

Itachi ignored the emotions blatantly expressed, already knowing they were calculated expressions that Omega used to drop people's guards around him.

Looking to Kisame, Itachi nodded at his original partner. They two vanished from the area without a word, heading in the direction of their Jinchuuriki target.

The moment Omega felt their presences vanish, he let out a harsh breath and gripped his arm tightly.

According to Pein, his target had been in Konoha, though he had left soon after the invasion of Oto and Suna.

"Now then, where did you go Uzumaki-San." Omega murmured softly, looking out across the expanse of trees as he allowed his chakra to spread. The trees and shrubbery around him started to grow, flowers sprouting despite the chilled air.

A trail seemingly made of fire flashed before Omega, though nothing in the surrounding area was burned. His hand outstretched as he cupped the burning embers of a trail long-lost and turned toward the extension leading away from Konoha.

"Uzumaki Yin…I wonder what has Pein-Sama so interested in someone like you, enough to force me away from my current mission to find you. Curious, curious." Omega hummed as he started to follow the trail of fire, his chakra dying down to a low pulse that only circled a foot around him, the rest of his presence meshing into his natural surroundings. To those outside his bubble, nothing was amiss.

Only those with the ability to see chakra and the familiarity with the different types would be able to detect the barrier around him, and even then, they would never be able to handle the amount that he exuded around him.

Yang chakra brought life to anything around it, but only when given in small amounts. The more one gave, the more likely they were to become addicted to the chakra, and if the dose began to rise…the more likely they were to die.

That was the reason why the Uzumaki had not split the two sides of a tailed beast, and it was also the reason why creating beings such as Omega was considered taboo.

Omega was filled almost completely with Yang Chakra, his Yin pathways separate from his material body. In fact, his pathways had been given to an entirely different person, while her Yang Paths had been implanted inside of him.

They had swapped and ended up sharing their spiritual and physical aspects, turning them into 'Twin Souls'.

Omega and his sister, Alpha, had been divided and meshed back together to suit the needs of his clan. It was because of his clan, and their actions following their new knowledge of the power their creations held, that he had chosen to massacre his clan. It was also because of those actions that Omega had so readily opposed the Nara Clan and had even placed himself of Shikaku-Nara's personal shit list.

It didn't matter much anyways. Even if Omega was hunted to the ends of the earth, no one but Pein could end him anyways.

His hand pressed against the necklace resting over his chest, a deep breath leaving him as he felt for the chakra leading him to his target once more.

He only needed to pass along the message, and then he would be going after Akihane and all of his planning would be over. Pein would grant his request, and he would finally be done.

I~~~~I

And that's that. I hardly expected to go into backstory, but I felt that a bit more knowledge could only help in the long run. Thanks for reading and reviewing!