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

I liked my plans to go smoothly. If there was one thing old Itachi's entire life and death taught me though, was that plans never go as planned. The look Dai was giving me as I entrusted Naruto to him was proof him and I were on the same page.

Always expect the unexpected.

"So, the perimeter…?"

"We're ready, Harusame-san's barrier is ready to be used." Right...Harusame-san had prepared everything while I was busy.

"Got it, let's get to work then."

I ran on the lake.

One, bring Isobu back.

Two, get a sample of his chakra for the back-up seal.

Three, calm him down and basically, seal him.

Easier said than down.

The lake was big, surrounded by a dense forest. There was barely any mist and I could easily see the cliff in the back. A weak breeze blew my hair as I created an ice platform thick enough so that the current did not move it. I grabbed my brush and ink and started tracing symbols of my ice. Once it was done, now my symbols forming a cross with an empty space at the center, I placed the sample of Isobu's chakra in the center.

I jumped back on the lake and executed hand seals.

"Fuinjutsu: Chakra Seal Release!" I said loudly.

Red bubbling chakra started to leave the paper tag. My hands formed the Snake seal. The four lines of symbols glowed purple and rose from the ice line ropes still attached to the paper tag. Then, they dived into the tag.

I gritted my teeth and my fingers twitched when I felt my seal gripping at Isobu deep in the tag. I moved my leg back and ended up putting a knee one the water to keep me stable.

"Come on Isobu," I muttered, a drop of sweat on my temple as my jutsu barely made him move. "Come on, get out of here."

I got chills when there was an animal roar coming from the tag. Then, it was like pulling at a loose thread on a sweater that would be ruined after.

It was easy and fast, and I took a deep breath as the first tail was in sight, then the other two and Isobu's entire body. He landed in the water brutally and the current changed, becoming more violent. The ice platform was sent meters away and crashed in the lake as I was constantly adapting my chakra flow to keep standing on the water.

There wasn't a sound for long minutes, not even a bird chirping could be heard. I stood up at my full height and started sensing.

I body flickered away just before one of his tail whipped the air where I was standing.

Shit, he was exactly how I thought he would be. Confused, angry and scared, lashing out at anything and anyone in sight. Face to the sky, he let a powerful roar out.

"Isobu, calm down!" I yelled at him. He stopped and his lone eye found mine. I hunched my shoulders.

I teleported to Haku when he shot a water ball that crashed in the barrier, shaking it violently.

"Alright, Haku and Naruto with me."

"Seriously!?" Naruto exclaimed with shock. I nodded at him.

"You have more chakra than any of us. Clones will be a distraction. Stay close to Haku or I, I don't want to ruin the alliance just yet."

I ran back on the lake, my cousins hot on my hills.

"What's the plan?" Haku asked me at my side.

"Immobilize him and get a sample from his chakra. I'm not going to just seal him in you, there's a safety in it."

Isobu spotted us and all hell broke loose. Naruto made a bunch of clones first, who attacked with the Rasengan while the real one stayed by my side. While Isobu was busy with the clones and the smoke they made when they vanished, Haku started to make his Crystal Ice Mirror. I shared a look with him when he left to go inside one of them.

"You'll breath underwater," I announced to Naruto as I put a seal on his mouth. I did the same to me and teleported us to where Haku was, behind his mirror. I grabbed Naruto and made us fall in the water.

Okay think. Haku was distracting him above but he wouldn't hold on forever. If only we could disrupt him.

Of course!

I nudged Naruto, showed him my opened hand, mimed a ball in it and then a whirlpool. He stared at me for a second with confusion, blinking rapidly and then hit his fist in his palm. I nodded when he mimed a shadow clone and the Rasengan.

I swam under Isobu with Naruto, making sure we were deep enough in the water to be out of Isobu's reach. Naruto made a clone and started the Rasengan, just enough to make a whirlpool. Isobu's started fidgeting and I froze him. Haku must have had the same idea because he stopped moving.

I shot a look at Naruto, who mimed the Fuuton jutsu I taught him and us doing it against Isobu to turn him over. Well, it was worth a shot, maybe it would give us enough time to reason with him.

I swam further away from my little brother and, with a nod, we both used the High Wind Technique.

Heh, who knew, we did turn him over.

We swam up and got on the water, Haku quickly joining and catching his breath.

"We're awesome dattebayo!"

"Yeah, don't cry victory too early Naruto. Stay here." I walked stiffly toward Isobu's neck. He wasn't moving but was whimpering like a hurt animal. I felt a pang at my heart at this sound. "Hey now Isobu-kun, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry but please calm down. It's me, it's Red-chan." His whimpers got quieter. "Yeah, that's right. We met before, we met with Yagura."

What happened next was a blur. Isobu shot a Bijuu Bomb in the sky, making him dive in the lake and he moved. I had just made a move to get my summoning scrolls that he jumped out of the water and was diving toward Naruto and Haku. My blood ran cold and I teleported to them, grabbed them and pulled them against me, trying to shield them, and I was knocked unconscious as light disappeared.

"I'm not gonna cry."

"Sure nee-chan?" Naruto insisted with a grin on his lips. I snorted loudly as Kakashi-san was giving his speech.

"As the Sixth Hokage, I am honored to meet the new generation of the Academy. This first year..." I stopped listening to him to glance at my babies. Aki was listening carefully, eyes shining with excitement. Shisui...still had that dango stick in his mouth and was clearly bored out of his mind, his hands crossed behind his head.

"Because you know, first it's the Academy, next thing you know they're moving out and getting married." I glared at my cousin.

"Yeah, well enjoy Boruto being so clingy for now, it won't last." Naruto lost his grin and looked purely horrified.

"Boruto loves me too much!" Someone cleared their throat and I clung to Naruto under Kakashi's glare. Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "Ah...sorry Kakashi-sensei."

"As I was saying..." We both sighed in relief. From the corner of my eyes, I spotted Shisui snickering and Aki...was giving us the eye.

"My daughter hates me now..." I sulked. Naruto draped his fake arm on my shoulders.

"Don't say that, your children love you too much to hate you. Embarrassed though? Yeah, sur..." He chuckled nervously under my glare.

I groaned against the hard and cold ground against my face. With a grunt, I pushed on my arms and turned over. It was dark, the walls of that place were red and there were lots of spikes. I sat up and rubbed my eyes to get rid of the blurriness.

Okay, there was Isobu and...Naruto and Haku…

Oh. We had been eaten. Great.

I got up and walked a few meters, my hand on the wall to keep me steady. I walked through a sort of gate looking like Isobu's mouth, to find myself in front of more spikes and more walls.

"Fuck," I cursed out loud. These two better be okay, otherwise I would kill them myself.

I stopped and leaned my back against the wall. Making the tiger seal with my hands, I focused to try to find one of my markers.

It took a minute or so, but I found one. From here, I had no idea where it would take me, but I wasn't about to…

"Mom?" I froze at the uncertainty in the girl's voice.

"Mom!" Slowly, I gulped and looked at my right. There was mist out of sudden, and two teenagers I had not seen in years. "Mom we missed you so much!"

I stood there, frozen, as the boy with dark red hair, almost black, threw himself at me, the girl following close behind with tears at the corner of her eyes.

With a trembling hand, I touched the boy's hair. It was smooth to the touch.

The girl was by my side in an instant and grabbed my free hand. It was warm, her hand was warm.

"Please Mom, let's go home now, we need you," she pleaded, onyx eyes begging me to follow them.

They were both solid, and warm, and their voices were the same.

They were my children, no matter how much I was trying to find flaws I couldn't.

"Come on Mom, Naruto-oji promised to never send you on a mission ever again!" Shisui claimed, his head raised toward me.

"He did?" I asked quietly, my hand cupping his cheek. He smiled and it broke my heart. I cupped his sister's cheek as well and she placed her hand on mine.

"Please don't leave us alone."

"I'm so sorry honey, I'm sorry I've left you alone for so long." I pushed Shisui back. "But I can't come with you when you're nothing but my imagination. There's no way you haven't aged."

Shisui's face broke into an angry scowl.

"What the f..." Aki placed a hand on his mouth and looked coldly at me, the same way Itachi did not so long ago.

"Why?" she asked simply, her voice clear yet...yet heartbroken.

Why? Why? Why indeed, why didn't I want to go with them when they were illusions? It was tempting, but in the back of my mind, Naruto, Haku and Sasuke appeared.

I couldn't really leave them, could I? Not when they had been calling me their sister since they were children. Not when one was mourning gravely his master and refused to see anyone but Naruto and I.

Not when I fucked up by developing bonds with people of this...world.

Parallel worlds. So similar yet so different, where one changed event forged a whole new path.

A path my children wouldn't walk.

"Because we no longer belong in the same place," I whispered faintly, eyes empty. "And mostly, because you're not real."

"Do you really think it or are you trying to persuade you of this Akane?" I slid against the wall until I was sitting on the ground.

My breath was stuck in my throat, my wide eyes on the new person. My children, my babies, my everything were gone and instead...instead, their father stood in front of me, Konoha symbol slashed on his forehead protector. I covered my mouth with my hand. He wasn't wearing his coat and his expression, even if it was cold, was slightly more relaxed. I started shaking my head and in my denial, I heard him sighing and kneeling in front of me. Two hands cupped my face and I was forced to stare into two onyx eyes, so similar but also so different from Itachi's.

From the current Itachi.

"You're...you're not real, you're dead..." I croaked, a painful lump in my throat. I tried brushing his hands off my face, his fake...his fake hands, because he was fake, because that version of Itachi was dead, that version of Itachi was dead and buried and nothing but bones in another world, in another time and he couldn't possibly be this warm and…

"Calm down Akane," he whispered to me, his forehead against mine. His warm breath was against my lips, slowly inching closer and closer. In the blink of an eye, I found my strength back and pushed him away. He stood still for a moment until he moved back, onyx eyes staring straight into mine and the feeling of rejection in them made me choke down a sob. "I see. You...you told me you loved me." I tried to stop listening to him, but his deep and soothing voice was still the most melodious sound to my ears. "You said you treasured Shisui's memory but now...you've forgotten about him." I widened my eyes shock. "It's my turn now, isn't it? You...you prefer having him rather than me, he has less emotional baggage after all, he's easier to be with." His statement sent like a wave of electricity through my body, the painful kind, and I grabbed his face, my eyes begging him to believe me.

"No! I don't...I don't feel that way toward him, I don't want to be with him. He..." I trailed off, my voice breaking, but he seemed happy to hear that.

"You're not replacing me then?" I shook my head no. "You haven't forgotten me. I...I needed you so much Akane."

"Did you?" I asked him quietly. His eyes grew soft and a small smile graced his lips. I bit my lower lip to keep my tears inside when he poked me in the forehead, something he never did but that I witnessed old Sasuke do to old Sakura, Sarada, my kids and even me.

But never Itachi.

"I didn't show it, but yes. You...never judged me and accepted me when I came back. You were soothing my soul in a way." I let him hug me and put his head on my shoulder.

Was he...was he real in the end?

"I needed it to continue my mission, but now...I can't stand the pain you have been in for the past six years Akane, I want to help you like you helped me. You just need to break your seal and die."

"...what?"

"I thought I would see you the day you die, that you would join me and then we would have watched over our family together." I wanted to cry so much. He seemed so sincere, so hurt and so loving, wanting to watch over our family. "But you didn't come. You were sent back and I was stuck, watching you and not able to do a thing. I heard you, every single time you cried, every single time you thought it was too much to see everyone alive, where your knowledge was giving you nightmares. I heard you every single time you wanted to see me and ask me for help but I couldn't." He hugged me tighter and, with shaking arms, I hugged him back delicately, scared he would vanish. He didn't. "I wanted to hug you and tell you everything would be alright but I couldn't." I thought I heard something in the back of my mind, but I only listened to Itachi. "You're mine, even today you're still mine, not theirs. You can't project yourself in the future here, you don't belong here." Fu...ture? "Break the seal and then we can be together again, my soul and your soul will be free. I love you Akane."

"I love you too Itachi," I sobbed quietly. "I'll always love you."

"Then come back to me," he whispered back in my ear. "You need to rest. You deserve to rest. They don't...they have everything we didn't have, this new Itachi has everything I didn't have...He doesn't need you too in his life. None of them does. You're not in the same village, they'll forget you one day."

"It..."

I blinked, and Itachi's embrace was replaced by nothing, Minato's wide and worried eyes on me.

"What? But..."

"Akane, it's not real," he explained to me with heavy breath. "I've been trying to pull you in here to tell you that. It's not real, Itachi and your twins were not...they were not..." He bit his lips with pained eyes. He felt everything I felt if I remembered well. "Akane, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry I have to break your dream, but it's not real. The mist, it's from Isobu, it's a genjutsu that confronts you to your insecurities. You need to snap out of it and fast."

"A...genjutsu?" I muttered. There was like a weight dropped in the pit of my stomach. "I...of course, how stupid can I be..."

"Aka..." I raised my hand to stop him, a broken smile on my lips.

"Don't...thank you." I snorted and in the blink of an eye, I was back. There was still the fake Itachi, hugging me tightly.

He was so warm.

The real one though wasn't here. He left a long, long time ago.

I made some hand seals in his back.

"What are you…"

"Fuuton: Passing Typhoon." The mist was blown away.

With this, Itachi was gone too.

One second later, I jumped on my feet and ran up the wall at the sight of many mini Isobus. That was some digestive system he had! However, Isobu told me I could seal one of these mini Isobus as a chakra sample.

I clicked my tongue at the number of Isobus there was. I let them close and managed to seal one in a scroll, but then I ran. I ran as fast as I could because those little turtles thingy were very fast.

"Nee-chan!" I looked up and saw Naruto and Haku. I joined them as quickly as possible, the swarm of Isobus behind me.

"Grab me!" They, each had a hand on my arms and I teleported us out of Isobu.

I fell on the rocky ground of a nook in a cliff, on the shore of Biu Island.

"It's the night already, and it's raining hard," Naruto commented. I got up on shaky limbs and ran outside. I bent over a bush and puked. I threw up bile and some rests of my breakfast, under my relative's worried gaze. A hand rubbed circles in my back.

"Uzu-nee, the mist troubled you that much?" his calm voice asked me. I coughed a little once I was done puking and nodded weakly, my arms around my aching stomach. Haku gave me a handkerchief to wipe my mouth. Once this was done, I went back to the nook, where Naruto was trying to light a fire.

"Nee-chan, you're okay?"

"Yeah, just…" Naruto's big blue eyes we glued to my face, waiting for me to tell him what was wrong. He didn't need me, they didn't need me...was it true? Did they...we were in different villages but...Naruto never forgot Gaara, so…

I felt guilty. I felt guilty for never thinking how old Naruto must have felt when old Sasuke gave him his report and my body, how he must have felt guilty and thought he was the one who killed me by sending me on this mission.

Both of us...felt something was going to happen, he told me he had a bad feeling about this and to be extra careful. When I left old Konoha, I had stared at oji-chan's rock face for a long time. I knew what was that feeling now but…

I hugged Naruto.

"I'm okay." I gave Haku a mini explosive seal on a paper tag, that I often used in mission to light a fire.

Once the flames were illuminating the cave-like nook, we stripped to let our clothes dry, all of us now in shirts and pants. My black shirt was waterproof anyway, but Naruto and Haku were wrapped tightly in blankets.

Mangetsu had been right, I did bring my entire apartment when I was on a mission.

"Now what?" Haku asked me quietly as I gave him and Naruto some instant ramen cups.

"Ramen!"

"Yeah, I'm always prepared," I told him with a wink. "And I don't know Haku, clearly Isobu has some space-time jutsu at his disposal we were not aware of. We're on Biu Island, far from the rest. They'll send a search party soon and ask for reinforcement. Right now, the sealing failed and the logic would want us to go home."

"But?" I sighed.

"I'm sure Isobu is still around and I don't like failure. I tried to do it the easy way and it failed."

"You want to try again then." I nodded at Haku.

"We'll rest here until the sun rises and we'll look for him." I took off my forehead protector and put it in a paper tag.

I was in and out of sleep for most of the night, preparing the back-up seal when I was awake, Naruto having chosen my lap as a pillow. Haku moved closer too and I made him put his head on my shoulder. They were keeping warm me by doing that.

As promised, the sun, or more like the day was barely there that we packed and left. We walked down on the shore, the rain having left to be replaced by misty rain. Heavy gray clouds had invaded the sky and the wind was blowing hard enough for the sand to be blown away. I made the tiger seal and tried to expand my sensory senses as much as I could.

Nothing.

I summoned Seihitsu.

"Hey Seihitsu, please help me tracking down the Sanbi please." I also summoned Umi and Oki and sent them do the same thing. "Naruto, do you think you could make clones and send them on a patrol? Us three are sticking together though. I'll do the same."

It was after a good hour that we found Isobu's chakra, still far from us. He was far from the shore period actually, it had just become a black spot in the distance.

He must have felt us because he jumped out of the water, towering us by his height. Nobody moved for a moment.

"Scatter!" Haku yelled as Isobu literal made a Bijuu Bomb and threw it. I made an ice barrier all around us, and multiple walls of ice to slow it down.

In the end, it exploded just before the shore but the blow of the explosion made us fall. I threw Naruto toward Haku when Isobu was about to hit him with one of his tail. Unfortunately for me, his tail still ended in the water, sending it everywhere and because of that, I didn't see another tail coming straight at me.

I moved enough to keep it from killing me.

"UZU-NEE!" Haku's voice broke me out of my stupor and my brain finally registered the pain.

I spat blood and it dripped down my chain and in the sea under my feet as Isobu's tail stopped moving. The deep gash on my side was bleeding, heavily, too much for it to be superficial, and I was sure the blow had broken at least a rib. Then, I felt something grazed my left arm. I didn't know what it was, but it was bad, as it made me fall on my back.

I saw double for a second and I groaned in pain.

I remembered the pain. The Bijuu chakra was already starting to spread.

As he was going to attack me again, he was blocked by chains and ice. Naruto ran to me and helped me up.

"Isobu, I'm sorry I killed Yagura, and I would let you kill me if the stakes were not as important as they are." Naruto tensed at my words.

"Wait nee-c..."

"Seihitsu, take care of Naruto," I ordered my summon, my arm leaving Naruto's shoulders. With a hand on my bloody side, I stumbled toward the paralyzed bijuu. "I'm sorry I took your friend Isobu, I'm so, so sorry but...but please stop fighting us."

His lone eye stared at me and I finally, finally saw the utter fear in it. I sighed and cursed my stupidity in my mind, defending ourselves, while vital, stirred his fear up.

However, the sight of my bloody clothes must have made something snap inside of him, because I saw something akin to recognition in his eye.

"Red-chan?" I widened my eyes at his voice, so unsure and shy, ringing softly in the silence of the sea. What an odd contrast it was, a bijuu and 'soft' in the same sentence.

"Hey you," I told him with a relieved grin, "welcome back." I stretched out my hand to him. I ordered my summons to let him go, and they did, and slowly, he raised one of his front hands to me. My fingers gently closed around the nail, or tried to as it was bigger than my hand. "Everything is gonna be fine now, 'kay?"

"Okay," he repeated. He patted my head with one of his huge finger. "You humans are so tiny and fragile."

"Yeah, we are," I agreed bitterly. I walked closer to him and caressed his jaw. "Do you remember what we said?"

"Yes." I smiled at him and made an ice platform, big enough to have the three of us on it without clinging to each other. I summoned the sealing altar for the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style.

Oji-chan was right. But instead of stealing back a bijuu from Obito, I would just...turn Haku into a jinc…

"Aouch!" I squeaked as Haku raised my top enough to let the gash on my side exposed to the sea air.

"It won't be long, but I need to stitch the wound Uzu-nee, or you'll die from blood loss before you can do anything." I shot a hopeful glance at Naruto and sweat dropped at the clean bandages in his hands, ready to be used. I sighed in defeat and let them do their work.

Once this was done, Isobu calmly behind us, Haku went to the ceremonial altar and I raised his top to expose his stomach. As I was drawing the seal, Naruto was peeking curiously above my shoulders.

"That's my seal!"

"It is," I confirmed sharply, the seal done. I was now incorporating the back-up seal in it. "This seal is extremely powerful for jinchuriki, and beneficial to them too." I shot one last glance behind me, at Isobu, and nodded to him.

Then, I activated the seal. Haku screamed and I bit my bottom lip, feeling Isobu's chakra filling the seal. My hair was blown away, whipping my face and Naruto grabbed my shoulders to stay still as white smoke surrounded us, Isobu vanishing in the seal.

I caught Haku when the altar disappeared. He was breathing and his face was calmer. I checked my work and sighed in relief.

Everything seemed okay.

"Haku!" Naruto called him and he furrowed his brows. "Hey Haku! Answer us! How do you feel!?"

"Like...I ate so...something bad..." he mumbled and I chuckled, pulling him against me. I hugged him tightly, my forehead against the side of his head.

"I'm sorry," I whispered in his ear. His hand clumsily patted my knee, silently telling me it was alright.

Man, I sealed a bijuu and sealed a seal in the seal itself. Oji-chan, you better be proud of my fuinjutsu skills now.

"Oh I am, trust me." I nodded with satisfaction.

"Naruto, can you carry Haku? You're the only healthy one right now, you're his bodyguard until Kiri. It's a crucial mission I'm giving you, okay." He saluted and put Haku on his shoulder as if he weighted nothing.

"Count on me nee-chan!" We started to leave.

"ART...IS AN EXPLOSION!" You've got to be fucking kidding me.

"Akatsuki!" Naruto screamed as white clay sculptures were falling on us. I spun around and raised my arms. I winced at the pain in my left arm caused by Isobu's chakra and erected an ice shield in the form of a dome. Less solid than my frozen water shield, but it covered more ground.

I searched through my back pouch and threw a map to Naruto.

"Haku has a contact seal on him, I made sure of that before we left the village. Run."

"I'm not leaving you behind nee-chan!" Naruto...such a bleeding-heart.

"Naruto...I've survived so far, I'll survive now too. I won't leave my brothers be such easy targets, so please Naruto, please go."

"But..." The first bomb touched the shield and I gritted my teeth. It were powerful explosions the Bakkuton made.

"GO!" He didn't budge for a second and ended up running.

"DON'T YOU DARE DYING!" he roared at me, running as fast as he could to the shore. I smirked.

My lie made him leave in the end. He will resent me for that, but they had to leave. I didn't have the strength to keep up my shield with so many explosions, so I raised my arms in front of me to protect myself when Deidara's bombs exploded all around me, sending water everywhere.

I turned my head to look at the boys. They were almost at the shore, but I widened my eyes when I spotted bombs going their ways.

"INCOMING!" I managed to yell.

I blinked when I felt my limbs getting attached to strings and I was in the air as black smoke engulfed the boys.

I didn't have the time to dwell on that though, because I was thrown harshly in the sea on the opposite side.

Huh…

Maybe it was my time after all.

I closed my eyes and let darkness engulfed me.

Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks to nevvy for the reviews!

Happy New Year !

Bye!