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

Character age:

Akane, Itachi: 18

Naruto, Sasuke: 13

Shisui: 22

Kakashi: 27

"Oh I remember them!" I cried out suddenly, Mangetsu raising his head from the seal he was desperately trying to draw. "Before! She became the guardian at the Hōzuki Castle!"

"The technique she used on you must have been what got her there." I nodded at my friend's conclusion and peeked at his work. It was the sloppiest I had ever witnessed, even Suigetsu could have done better.

"You know, it's reassuring when someone who has been certified as a genius at the age of three struggles to do something you've mastered. Thanks man, you made my day by sucking." I avoided the brush that flew into pieces when it met the wall. Well, Mangetsu's bedroom wall wasn't as white as it used to be anyway. "Anyway, do you happen to know how Karin's training is going? Suigetsu and Haku went there, didn't they?"

"They did yeah, it seems like she's kinda loving it, healing people with her knowledge and Dai pretty much wants to find a way to synthesize her ability. From what Haku told me, she might be planning on helping him." He started to snicker and I blinked with confusion when he was laughing loudly.

"I'm missing something ain't I?"

"Yeah, Suigetsu keeps complaining about her and how she keeps punching him when he talks. I thought I told him how you should be wary of Uzumaki women.

"Hilarious Mangetsu, really," I mumbled and glared at his smirk. At least, Karin seemed to slowly be finding her place. However, I needed to find a way to go to Uzushio, I needed to do more research, for my Shinigami seal and its improvements and simply just to see if I ouldn get more seals period. From all of the seals I knew, only the Pupil Seal was mine. The others? I learned them and made variations of them so that they worked with my chakra, but the seal in itself was others. "How is tracking down Raiga going?"

"Don't wanna talk about it," he muttered under his breath. He was supposed to go get the last sword but Raiga was nowhere to be found. I wondered if the two shinobi sensei placed near the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rice in case Sasuke tried to leave Konoha would know anything. "By the way, I heard people saying there had been fights on Biu Island., some kind of cults from the Land of Hot Water or some shit like that." I frowned. A cult from there? Didn't Dad actually care about avoiding some people when we used to live there? "Uzu? You know something?"

"Maybe, I'm pretty sure my father didn't want to get in a fight with them or something like that."

"If your father didn't want something like that to happen maybe it's more serious than it looks."

When I was back at my place, I looked at the list I made about what I would be looking for in Uzushio. First, the relation between my seal and the jinchuriki, more about the side effects. Second, look for the improvement Saiken mentioned and see if I could do it to myself. Thirdly, try to find seals or stuff in general to help me with the back up seal and how I could get a sample of Isobu's chakra to test a potential new jinchuriki.

I hated just thinking about it.

Oh, and find out why I couldn't feel oji-chan in my seal since Konoha! Fuck, it was annoying when you didn't have a Seal Master/Hokage to help you out!

"It's a cult from the Land of Hot Waters," I told Yagura sternly with a frown on my face. "I don't know a lot about it, except they create a lot of destruction for that Jashin. Dad...I wouldn't say he was concerned as much about them as the war when we moved there, but he wasn't entirely comfortable with them nearby." It was Yagura's turn to frown.

"Uzumaki, you'll go investigate Biu Island and the Land of Hot Water." Hum...wasn't there a jashinist in the Akatsuki? Why would Obito want to know more?

I blinked when Yagura rubbed his head with a grimace of his face.

"What are you looking at?" he hissed at me and I jumped a little before leaving him. Maybe it was Yagura who wanted me investigate.

In any case, Haku didn't look pleased to know I would be investigate a cult on my own. Looking on the bright side though, I could stop by Uzushio.

But Jashin? Really? Why would they even be on Biu Island anyway?

Even when I was on the island, covered by a dark travel cloak with the hood on because of the drizzle, the freezing drizzle even as October was hitting hard this year. Naruto was thirteen and Shisui twenty-two huh…

In any case, I couldn't find anything on the island. No jashinist, and the few people who talked to me didn't seem to know anything about it. It was weird, why would they come here and leave without getting anything from this place? Not as if there was much to take but...Man, why?

I ended up in the Land of Hot Water, basically running around like a headless chicken looking for anything, anything really about that damn cult. I would have gladly taken information about one's underwear color at that point, but they were way too good at hiding anything related to them. It was infuriating. However, as I was in the Land of Hot Water, I bought some of their water. Dai wasn't in the village anymore, we would need something to get us back on our feet and it would be useful at the hideout too. I bought a lot.

I was running along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water toward Uzushio when a toad appeared in front of me.

"Uzumaki Akane?"

"Yeah?" The toad gave me a scroll and disappeared in a poof of smoke. I didn't waste time and opened it, my eyes reading the words quickly. "Dammit Sasuke..."

He defected last night. A team of five, consisting of Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Chouji and Kiba had been sent, because most jounin were dispatched through the country. This included Kakashi, Itachi, Shisui and even Fugaku-san and only God knew who else. Orochimaru really did choose the moment to…

Why would Sasuke even leave Konoha? What were the reasons behind this?

Why did the Uchihas have to be so fucking troublesome?

I cut my thumb open and summoned Seihitsu.

"Hello Akane."

"Hey, I need you to track down Sasuke. I don't have any of his belongings but I have an idea of where he is going. Tell me if you feel anything." I jumped on him and we were off toward the border with the Land of Rice, with Oto. Someone was gonna get slapped once I had him.

Boys were stupid.

All of them.

"What?"

"Itachi..." his mother tried to calm him down, but his blood kept boiling in his veins. What did the Hokage mean by 'Sasuke has defected'? Surely his little brother wouldn't have left the village like that. He had been taken or…

Who was he kidding? Sasuke had been acting strange, was more withdraw than ever. He saw it during their mission in the Land of Snow. He didn't say anything but it didn't mean he had not felt the glares his little brother would give him, or Naruto. He should have tried to talk to him, to get him to speak up but he had been so busy with the state of the village that…

"Where?"

"Orochimaru, but I've already dispatched a team Itachi, so don't you think to go on your own," Tsunade told him with stern and sharp eyes and he clenched his fists.

"Who? Every high-ranked shinobi are out."

"Four genin of his promotion, including Naruto, plus a chuunin." Itachi opened his eyes wide. What was the Hokage thinking? "Kakashi got back earlier than you, he's already after them with a team of medic. Even if they fail, I have everything under control." At this, his mother also looked at their Hokage. "I had a talk with Fugaku after Jiraya looked at Sasuke's mark." She frowned and glared at Itachi, seemingly having seen something she didn't like. "Listen to me brat, if everything goes as planned, your brother won't be a missing-nin but if you go on your own, without being ordered to, then you'll be classified as such, or at least you'll have to face repercussions. Brother or not, you're staying here until I tell you otherwise."

Itachi blinked, and even if his mind was screaming to go after his brother, he replied in a whisper, "Fine."

"You'll be okay?"

"Yeah..." Pukka said, rubbing a dark spot in her black hair. "The kid still had some carts up his sleeve."

"I can't believe we fell for a stupid genjutsu that made us attack each other," her partner, Gin, muttered, a thin drop of blood running down his nose. I looked at Sasuke, unconscious on the ground. Once Seihitsu told me he felt Kurama's chakra, he sped up, and right when I could connect with Sasuke's marker enough, I teleported to him and place an Immobility Seal and a Chakra Suppressing Seal plus my Pupil Seal on him.

"Thanks for blocking his way guys," I told them as I put Sasuke's limp body on my shoulder. Seihitsu landed behind me and I placed Sasuke on his back, climbing on him afterward. "Come back fast, this place is not safe."

"We'll patch ourselves up first, it shouldn't be long." I nodded at Pukka and looked down at my summon, who was moving his head around.

"You feel something?"

"I don't know, it's...strange, almost as if they were two..." he mumbled between his fangs and 'looked' around us. Were we being watched? "I don't like this."

"Let's go. See you later guys." Seihitsu started running. "Is Konoha around? Sas..."

"No..." My head snapped to Sasuke, who was weakly moving his lips. "Village...liars..." Wha…

"Akane?"

"Uzushio Seihitsu, I have a feeling giving Sasuke back right now wouldn't be good for him after all," I said in a low voice. What pushed him to leave? I looked at my wound on my thumb and put pressure on it to make it bleed again, and summoned Uma on Seihitsu. "Uma, go to Konoha. Get someone to reverse summon you to Mom and tell her to tell Tsunade-san I have the package and we'll take care of it." He nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. I peeked over my shoulder. Sasuke was out cold once again. I would make him talk once we were in Uzushio. "By the way, did you feel anything else at the Valley?"

"Your cousin was still alive. Barely, but he was." Huh...Sasuke still tried to kill him.

Sasuke didn't wake up from the entire trip. It wasn't long, especially knowing I had left a marker there before so once we reached the shore, my summon went home and I used Hiraishin. The quiet beach and its orangey pink sunset were replaced by rubble of concrete and wild plants with a great sight on the old harbor, now completely immersed in water. I could see the remaining docks though.

I sighed heavily and made a fire when the night was starting to fall. Then, I walked up to Sasuke, for whom I made a pitiful pillow out of my flak jacket, and grabbed all of my paper seals from my pouch. Did I...No, I didn't have any diagnosis seal, just healing seals for external injuries and chakra pills. And my water!

I unsealed a cup and some water. Then, I shook Sasuke pretty harshly. He groaned in pain and choked on the water when I poured it in his mouth. He coughed and sat up abruptly so I slapped him on the back.

"Where..." he started sleepily and looked around him. When his eyes found mine, he blinked and rubbed his eyes. "Nee-san? Wha..."

"Even with me being in a different village I have to get you out of troubles. Seriously, it's annoying. You're lucky I was on a mission around."

"Where are we?"

"The Land of Eddie, in the ruins of Uzushio. Care to tell me now why you were willingly going to that snake?" He averted his eyes from me and grasped his shorts, the shadows the flames were casting on his face giving him an even darker look. "You don't wanna talk to me now?"

"So that you pretend you care when you don't?" he spat at me and I gave him a cold look. That was new. "So that you can lie to me like everyone I know?" His onyx eyes glared at me. I crossed my arms on my chest. "Did you know too? Was I the only one in the dark!?"

"What are you…"

"The coup!" he roared at me, his fists shaking in anger. "I'm talking about the coup the Uchihas wanted to throw against Konoha five years ago that was stopped the night we were kidnapped! Did. You. Know?" I was taken back. How...how did he know that? "Is it true nii-san was spying on the clan for the village!? That he would have killed us all if he had been ordered to in order to keep the coup from happening!?" I sighed slightly, my eyes growing soft. The picture he's had of Itachi was broken now. Was it good though? Would he be able to see his brother as the imperfect human being he was from now on?

"I...don't know about Itachi," I started in a hoarse voice, because I knew, I knew what Itachi would have done and how he would have broken Sasuke almost to the point of no return. "But yes, there was a coup in preparation." I saw something snapping in his eyes, almost like the last string linking his family to his village.

"Why?" he asked me in a whisper. "Why did they hate us so much? Why didn't they tell me?"

"Because you were eight and they wanted you to keep your childhood innocence for a little bit longer. Once you have a taste of how the shinobi world really works you cannot go back. It's not just getting strong to protect the weak and beat up bad guys. It's the political system that rules that continent, it's protecting your people and knowing who they are."

"The Uchihas are a part of the village, why would they...why..."

"Ignorant people will hate Sasuke, and then you reach a point where you snap and hate back. It's a never ending circle." I raised a brow at his shining eyes. He was trying not to cry. It fully hit me now that he had not lost his family. He had not and just realized how dirty and mean this world was. He didn't see his brother kill his parents and wasn't aiming at killing him. He was...he was just a kid who was trying to leave his brother's shadow.

It fully hit me Sasuke was only thirteen, with no traumas, and I felt so old. I would never really stop taking care of Uchiha kids would I?

"What happened for you to leave Sasuke?" He snorted loudly and turned his head away, probably to wipe his nose and his tears.

"I..." he started, looking back at me, "I was having a late training when some guys from the Sound showed up and said I should go with them if I wanted to live because of the mark. I was angry because of my fight with Naruto..."

"Fight with Naruto?" I interrupted him with my hand raised in front of me. "Why were you fighting? It was a good reason or something petty like jealousy?" He glared at the ground.

"Kakashi trapped me in ninja wires and talked to me to keep me in the village. It worked and I was going to the Hokage to tell her, maybe they could use me as a bet to get Orochimaru." Huh...good thinking. "But I stopped behind her door when I heard my father and her talking and...they mentioned the coup. I left after that. I...couldn't stay in a village with so much lies and...I..." He looked at his hands with wide eyes. Eyes wide with confusion and questions.

"You don't know why you're fighting anymore, or more like for who." He gulped loudly, his stare not able to keep up with my stern one. "You felt betrayed, like you should in a situation like that, but instead of handling it like a shinobi would have, by seeing the pros and cons, by getting all of the facts right, you let it get it to you. You let your emotions be a hindrance to your judgment and chose to be a brat. You ran away to a missing-nin who just killed the Third Hokage Sasuke. If you had succeeded, you would have been a missing-nin. You can be angry at them, it's normal, you can hate them for what could have been for all I care, but you wouldn't have been able to turn back. Your family lied to you? Yeah, they did. It doesn't mean they don't love you and are worrying about you. Your village lied too? Well, your team are probably feeling guilty about not seeing anything weird in you behavior and not being able to help you like a team should have. In your anger, have you realized everything you would have lost for someone who would have given you power for...for what? What would you have done then? Orochimaru wants a body, that's why you have that mark. You're thirteen, you're still a brat and I get it. But you're a shinobi, even if you're a genin, you're not considered as a kid anymore and you're not supposed to act like one." I didn't stop staring at him the whole time and now that I was slowly catching my breath, I felt satisfaction when the harsh consequences of his actions could have been finally fully hit him. He opened and closed his mouth as if he was desperately trying to say something.

"I'm sorry..."

"I'm not the one you should apologize to. Although, I'm not the one who should be lecturing you either. Well, nothing ever goes as planned. By the way, you're gonna have time to think about what you've done because you're not going to Konoha anytime soon."

"Wha..."

"You're staying with me. With how messy your mind is right now, going back to Konoha wouldn't help you either."

"You can't possibly be thinking about taking me to Kiri, right?" I laughed and smirked at him.

"Close. I'm not letting you becoming Yagura's target." He raised a brow. "Karatachi Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage. Fuck, do you learn anything about foreign countries at the Academy? You don't even learn tree and water walking!"

"Because you do?"

"Yeah, Kiri and Konoha programs are a lot different, even your genin days are different. I have to ask you something Sasuke." He looked unsure of whether or not he wanted to answer and I finally realized it was...well, it wasn't the first time I was scolding him but it was the first time I was lecturing him by giving straight up facts on how bad things could have been. From how he could barely handle my stare, it meant I still had authority on him, and with him in that state, I might even be the last one too because I was from another village. Because he knew Kiri had been plagued by civil wars whereas Konoha had avoided one and he ran away. "Why are you a shinobi?"

"To prove my father I can be as strong as It..." He stopped when I rolled my eyes.

"That's why Naruto's progresses are faster than yours Sasuke. Being a shinobi is your career Sasuke, you can't base the reason behind it on people. They're not eternal, they might die one day, and then what? What will your goal be?" I was being harsh on purpose, because this Sasuke had not lost anyone yet. "Sasuke, who are you? Forget you're an Uchiha, forget you're a shinobi of the Leaf for a minute. For the time you'll stay with me, I want you to think about it. Who is Sasuke? Why is he doing what he's doing? Why can't he get stronger as fast as Naruto? What is he fighting for?"

Shisui was at a loss when he entered the hospital room where Itachi was supposed to be in. The younger Uchiha was, looking through the window whereas Naruto was bandaged almost everywhere, his blue eyes staring at the sheet on his laps. Kakashi had told him about Sasuke when he barely had a foot in the village, but he did not think Naruto would be that hurt, especially with his healing being faster than average.

"Nii-chan!" the blond child told him with a forced smile. Shisui felt like he had to return it, although his was smaller. "You're back already?"

"Yeah, I was told about the situation and a squad of chuunin swapped with us at the border. How you're doing?" The question was as much for Naruto as for Itachi, even if the latter just turned to face them, his legs crossed and his hands in his pockets in fake nonchalance.

"I'm good, Sasuke...Sasuke didn't go as strongly on me as everyone say."

"He pierced his chest with a chidori, that's all," Itachi added, eyeing Naruto coldly. "Naruto, don't protect him. Sasuke will have to take responsibility for his behavior."

"Orochimaru was, is manipulating him! I promised Sakura-chan I'd bring him back and I will!"

"Because the first try was such a success," the heir spat. Silence engulfed the room, Naruto glaring at Itachi. The latter sighed in frustration and left the room without another word.

"You won't be alone Naruto, don't be reckless though," Shisui told him and stormed off after his best friend. He found him quickly, sat against the wall. "Hey man."

"I should have talked to him when I spotted the first signs," Itachi whispered, his head between his hands. "They fought on the roof of that building too you know. Kakashi-san stopped them and even talked to Sasuke before he left, but he still did and I don't know why. There's something else than just me."

"Isn't that kind of self-centered coming from you?" From his glare, Itachi did not like that he was trying to joke around. "Okay, sorry, but I think the same. If he attacked Naruto before, he might also be jealous of Naruto's progresses and isn't satisfied with his own."

"There's still something else, Sasuke wouldn't have left just because of his jealousy, it's..." Itachi stopped himself in the middle of his sentence and frowned. "Maybe he learned about the coup Shisui."

"How would he know about it? There's a rule about not mentioning in front of him."

"I don't know but...but it would explain it. If Sasuke knew the clan and the village almost had war between them, he would be too confused and betrayed to stay here. He's too immature and too hot headed, he would have acted in the heat of the moment." In any case he hoped Sasuke was okay and would realize his mistake before it was too late.

"I won't dispel the seals, stop asking." I beautifully ignored Sasuke's glare. I wasn't going to let myself giving into his tantrum. I put the last item back in my scroll and got up. "Follow me, I have some research to do, you're gonna help."

"If I don't want to help?" Oh, he dared being haughty with me?

"I'll freeze you to the bone, water wins over fire, too bad you're surrounded by it and unable to fight back." His face lost a shade. "Enjoy the trip in Uzushio, not a lot of people have access to it, especially Uchihas." He frowned.

"Why?"

"Because Uzumakis are distant relative of the Senju clan, and Uchihas and Senjus weren't the best of friends in the Warring States Period." I created three clones who left in various direction, leaving me and Sasuke going for the main house of the Uzumaki clan. It was silent for long minutes, until we reached the broken and moldy wooden gates.

"How is it, Kiri?" Sasuke ended up asking me.

"What do you mean?"

"You said last night genin were different."

"Ah. Well, if you put a freshly graduate from each Academy, Konoha will lose. You focus a lot on the theory. Kiri is not like that, we learn tree and water walking in last year, just like the base of kenjutsu. Even your graduation exams are...soft when you think of the real nature of your job. And when we're genin, we're not put in teams like in Konoha. Kiri favors missions and their success, we're sent on solo missions and we're put into squad with a jounin when we're considered for the chuunin exams so that we can take it. We're taught how to do a mission in any circumstances." Sasuke stared in front of him.

"What's the exam?"

"Sasuke..." I sighed and rubbed my temple, my feet getting wet because of the thin layer of water on the ground. "You're aware of the old graduation exam? The one Zabuza-san took without being in the Academy?" He nodded. "Well, it changed after, but it's still...real. You were put under a jounin commandment right after the Academy, so Kakashi could slowly make you understand how cruel and violent a shinobi is. We're murderers in the end. Students in the Academy in Kiri learn with that thought in mind. We don't really have a lot of written exams, we usually have a survival exam. After that, we fight a chuunin, to see our fighting skills and adaptation abilities in front of an opponent stronger than ourselves. Finally, we kill a prisoner, to see who can handle it and so that we don't have bad reactions in missions. There are still death, it's still cruel and brutal, but it's effective in a way. We're confronted to the shinobi life before being sent into the world and...Sasuke?"

"You had to do that too..." he whispered with glassy eyes. It was very different from what he knew.

"Partially, I didn't take the survival exam, Yagura made me take one two months after I got in Kiri. But what's done is done, it's useless to cry about it." Education, I knew Zabuza-san took the Academy program at heart, we'd need to reform the Academy. "I didn't go to the Academy anyway, except for my exam. I was 'home schooled'."

I made another clone who went in the main house and I looked around for a temple. The Uchiha had one, old Sasuke told me so, so the Uzumakis...Ah, there, behind a crumbling house was a roofless temple with whirlpool on the dark walls.

"What are we looking for?" Sasuke asked me when I started to look around the temple for some kind of hidden button.

"Secret room for stuff." Huh...old seal behind a torch? Found.

It was a lock...and blood, it required identification. I made my thumb bleed, for the third time in two days, and pressed it in the center of the seal. I pulled it away and watched as black ink went to the drop of blood and swallowed it, a slab at the entry moving away to reveal an old staircase. Sasuke looked inside of it.

"We need light," he stated plainly. I raised a brow.

"You're going to help without whining?" I was pretty sure his cheeks had a pinky tint to it. Hum...Sasuke didn't want to go to Orochimaru in particular, I was pretty sure he just needed to leave Konoha. He...was calmer than yesterday. He was still broody and upset, but my lecture seemed to have had some effects.

"Give me the torch," he muttered and I snickered, grabbing the old torch from the wall. He used a small Fire jutsu on it and I stretched out my arm. "It's deep."

"Yep, stay close to me." We started going down, the chilly air hitting me through my waterproof long sleeved shirt, as Sasuke had my flak jacket on him because of his destroyed shirt.

The steps were made of rock, but were not equals, some wider than others. The ceiling was also unequal, and I bumped my forehead against the wood of it at first. We finally reached the basement with me rubbing my forehead and muttering curses against the idiots who built that place.

"What's that?" I blinked at Sasuke with confusion, and followed his eyes. I froze, all of my hairs on end when I recognized the Shinigami on the door. Its eyes...were as terrifying as I remembered them to be. I carefully approached the closed door. There was...a circle in the middle. Another seal, what a surprise. However, that one was spread on the entire door. I read the symbols carefully.

Chakra.

Yurei.

How convenient. I gathered chakra on my hand and placed it in the middle of the seal. The symbols glowed purple and retreated to the locking seal.

Now the door was opened. I moved the torch around, but it was still too dark to see anything. I put a foot in the room, and I must have touched something because torches on the wall lighted by themselves out of nowhere. I put my own torch against the wall.

I looked around, not saying anything when I felt Sasuke stopping next to me. I was too busy gaping.

"Is that room one big seal?"

Indeed, black symbols were written all around us, with a giant seal in the middle. The same one I had on my stomach, except there was a sort of caricature of the Shinigami, a candle at the extremity of each of its horns and one at its shin.

I closed my mouth and took slow steps toward the wall in front of us, carefully walking around the Shinigami's face on the floor. Sasuke followed me closely.

"What is this place nee-san?" he whispered quickly, his eyes roaming around the room.

"The proof of the Uzumaki clan's insanity." My seal was warming up. It wasn't burning, but it was clearly reacting to the atmosphere of the place.

There was a closed scroll on an altar made of light gray stone. In a neat calligraphy, there was written 'Shinigami Claw'. It wasn't even faded by time, the ink was still a deep black. I grabbed it and gulped before opening it. The handwriting was small and still neat, but I noticed it was old. I could feel it at the quality of the paper, at some corners of the paper that had been yellowed by time. But I could read everything. I could understand every single words as if they had been written just yesterday. Someone had obviously made sure this scroll would always be readable.

The Shinigami Claw then. A seal given through a ceremony to increase your connection to the Shinigami, to let you become a real vassal in a way. The entire ceremony was described in the scroll, and the seals around the room were the stage. Any Yurei could have it, a seal that would be placed on my left hand and forearm, my 'claw'. With this, I would have the hand of Death itself and would be able to go through a lot of things, including a jinchuriki's seal, to reach the bijuu. It was exactly what Saiken talked about. I would also be able to steal other's souls and seal them, not in my own seal but in the Shinigami's stomach. The souls already in me would be locked in, and depending on the number of souls I'd give the Shinigami and their quality, I'd...be able to temporary summon the souls in me, depending if I could have a connection with them. I would also be able to exchange my own soul and life, forever condemning me to the Shinigami, for someone else's and bring them back if they had just passed and had a strong chakra…

Like...the Sage's descendants? Let's say Itachi died in front of me, I'd be able to trade my soul for his and he'd be healed enough to be out of mortal danger?

The Shinigami was the God of Death after all, so having a contract with him...it would give you, give me a lot more power than a human being should ever have access to. Nobody should have so much power. I had never been the kind of person interested in having that much power either, I just wanted enough of it to survive.

But I needed to reach Yagura, the real Yagura.

My eyes scanned the rest of the document. This time around, the side and bad effects were there. I would never be able to have a successful pregnancy should I ever be pregnant. Huh, simply having my seal reduced the chances by fifty percent anyway. If I were to break my seal by giving the Shinigami somebody's soul to replace mine, I...oh…

I would say goodbye to my past life. I would know I had a past life, but I wouldn't remember it properly speaking. I would know I had children with Itachi for instance, but not remember them or my relationship with their father, and therefore I wouldn't have any kind of emotional attachment to them.

Other than this, it was written my 'watching soul' would be able to speak to me if I was on the verge of dying. I didn't know what that thing was, but I understood the next sentence.

'Those who bear the hand of Death shall know Death itself, and prove themselves worthy of being its representative.'

There was a test then, if not several.

"Nee-san?" I heard Sasuke call me, but I ignored him. Could I? Could I do it? There were advantages, I literally would have the power to destroy the Edo Tensei very easily. I would be able to do so much. I'd be able to give my life for somebody else.

Did I want the side effects though? I didn't care about sterility, been there and done the whole maternity thing already, but did I want to do something that would cut me off from my past life entirely if I wanted to break the seal?

Would I even survive the tests?

I spotted a seal at the end of the explanation and used it. Another scroll appeared in my hand. I opened it and froze.

It was a list of all the Yurei, and underlined were the names of those who had the Shinigami Claw. There were five. The last name was faded, but it was mine.

It was fucked up. This situation, that seal, that kinjutsu, it was an entire another dimension of fucked up. Nobody should have ever messed up with Death, because when you're dead, you're supposed to stay dead. Nobody should be sent back because of regrets, and nobody should summon dead people and control them.

My hands clenched around the scrolls tightly.

I had to. I had to to do this, didn't I?

I had to. Once my thumb was bleeding once again, I traced the shadow of my name on the paper.

"What..." I turned my head to the stunned Sasuke next to me, and realized the candles were burning strongly.

It was my definite answer then. I'd already lived once.

The fear in the pit of my stomach had no right to be here.

"Sasuke." He looked up at me with uncertainty in his eyes. "What's going to happen in here will forever stay between you and I. Nobody else can know what's about to happen."

"What..." he repeated but I ignored him, once again. I took off my shirt, leaving me in my sports bra and threw it at him. I didn't even smirk at his reddened cheeks. Instead, I sat in the middle of the Shinigami face. I drew the seal from the instructions on the palm of my left hand with my blood and applied it to the seal on my stomach.

I felt like a lock was being opened.

I heard Sasuke screaming my name as I passed out.

Hey! Thanks for reading! Please review so that I know you liked it :) Thanks to kankananime123 and Ederisu for the reviews :). I hope I was clear in the explanation of the seal though!

Bye!