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

"You've been spacing out a lot since that man talked to you," Itachi told me when he was making a few steps without his crutch. Three days and we were leaving. "And you look awful."

"Thanks," I replied with sarcasm. I averted my eyes under his insistent look. "I've been listening a lot more closely to what people say in town. They do call me a 'hero' or 'the future Rokudaime'."

"It's not surprising, considering the part you played." I threw my head back, now against the wall as he sat next to me on the couch. He grabbed my Icha Icha and set it aside. I glared at him. "I don't care about your readings, but don't do that in front of me." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "You still can't sleep."

"Nightmares," I muttered under my breath. "And all of those hypocrites...now that I did something that go along with them, they're all friendly and smiley? It wasn't that long ago they were beating me up in a dead-end because I was walking in the street but they knew I was Yagura's apprentice. Fuck, Yagura did worse all the time. I'm not Naruto, I'm not just going to smile back, embarrassed, and pretend they've always been nice to me!"

"Naruto does that?"

"I mean, the day he'll be recognized, it's what will happen!" I rectified myself quickly. His face stayed blank for a while, way too long for my liking.

"It does sound like him," he finally admitted, making me high-five myself in my mind. "So you're going to ignore them?"

"I can't really beat them up anymore, sensei will scold me. Thanks by the way, for telling him to fuck off."

"I don't recall saying anything like that."

"I heard it like that," I said with a smirk. He chuckled. "Hey, thinking about it, how come you're so relaxed ever since you're awake? Shouldn't you be asking to go to Konoha as soon as you can?" He shrugged.

"I can enjoy a vacation too."

"Where you help me and Haku sorting out how to deal with our clan inheritance?"

"You looked ready to jump out of the window. I didn't want him to deal with it on his own." I punched him lightly in the ribs. He always knew what to say to piss me off that…

Huh…

He had been teasing me a hell lot with all the time we were spending together.

Not good Akane, not good at all. Don't get addicted to any Uchiha, it was bad enough when old Itachi left, or when you had to push Shisui away. Don't get too addicted to Itachi's presence knowing the separation was soon.

Did I even know what I wanted anymore? There were times where I didn't see the logic of my actions. I wanted to stay away from Itachi as much as I could because I wanted him to live his life to the fullest without someone with no future like me, and here I was, slowly falling back into the bubble I was so used to with old Itachi.

I had to pop it before it became too big and popped by itself.

He should not be doing what he had been doing ever since he woke up in the hospital. Itachi had to admit, asking her to stay when Shizune-san explained his disease to him just to have someone with him had truly been the start of it.

They were spending too much time together. Not that he minded, far from it, but it would make the separation even harder. Even if they were just friends, even if she was alive, soon they would stop being together so much and the distance would be between them.

Still, he did not want it to stop. He was enjoying every seconds spent with his old friend, especially now she was not hiding the kunoichi part of her to him anymore. She seemed freer in a way. Also, she did not mind talking about herself to a certain degree, which, he had to admit, surprised him. He was still walking on eggshells with how he was turning his sentences and what words would be the best. He didn't want her to withdraw into herself by saying something she would take the wrong way.

It had already happened with Izumi and she had screamed at him for being indifferent about how people took his words.

He still had to approach the sensitive subject of her knowing about the Uchiha coup and how. They still had to approach their fight at the hideout. He still had to apologize for raising his hand against her.

She seemed happy to ignore it, but they had to talk about it. He would not let her prevent him from apologizing like when he saw her back in Konoha.

Going back into his old habit of stalking her may not be the best way to do that though, but he still did. She mentioned nightmares that kept her from sleeping, explaining the dark circles under her eyes.

Him being in the cemetery of Kiri at two in the morning with her sitting quietly in front of the Yondaime's grave was not that weird. He was repeating it like a mantra in his head. It was not that weird and he was not acting like a creepy guy stalking an emotionally distressed girl in the middle of the night.

Itachi took a deep breath, the ridiculousness of the situation making him walk up to her. It was just Akane, he could talk to her without being so concerned of what he would say. He was being stupid and Shisui would laugh at him for that.

He was just a few meters away from her when she turned her head to him. When she realized it was him, she widened her eyes in shock and hid her face.

"Why...why are you..." she stuttered weakly as he sat down next to her.

"It's okay to finally cry, it would be concerning if you did not." Big ugly tears were running down her cheeks, her sleeve under her nose as she kept snorting in what people would call an unladylike way. Not that he cared about that.

"Why is it...is it always you who...who see me in these...these situations?" She hugged her knees closer to her chest, her face hidden behind them. He probably should hug her and let her cry on his shoulder, but he found himself unable to move. He had a gift for always being here when she didn't want him to. After a few minutes where she sobbed and he just sat next to her without saying a word, she slammed her fists on the ground, an angry scowl on her face. "How can they call me a 'hero' when I killed someone!? I'm a fucking murderer, we all are, no shinobi will ever be a hero! Why are they so fucking dumb!?" She turned angry brown eyes, still shining with tears, to him. "I mean, the system is rotten to the core! It makes us see this stupid symbol on these stupid headbands instead of the people wearing them like you did!" He frowned slightly and glared at the ground. "You know what's the worse? It hurt me, of course, but I just can't bring myself to be mad at you because with all that shinobi bullshit I have in my head, your reaction was nothing but logic to me! I...I want to be mad at you but I just can't!"

"I'm sorry though," he said quietly, stopping her sobbing. "I'm sorry for your wrist, I shouldn't have lost my calm so fast."

"Don't, if I hadn't tried to hold you back, it wouldn't have happened. I was stupid and I'm sorry for playing dumb in Konoha, but I couldn't exactly come up to you and say I knew! Or that I was a missing-nin, we all know how that turned out!"

"I knew long before you left," he whispered, but he still got her attention. She blinked rapidly at him, confused. "Remember the festival? I already knew."

"You...you never..." He shrugged.

"It's not it was not important, but it didn't seem to have any impact so I never brought it up." New tears started to spill from her eyes.

"I failed at seeing that too then? I'm a bigger failure than I thought!" Itachi's eyes softened and he put his hand in her hair.

"You're not a failure." She slapped his hand away, watery eyes shooting daggers at him.

"Oh really!? I failed leaving this place five time and got my friends in danger because of that! Sasuke and Naruto were taken by the Foundation because of me! I never told you anything because that stupid brain of yours and how it works scare the shit out of me and it hurt you in the end! I failed at hiding in Konoha and almost caused a fucking war! I failed at everything concerning Shisui and pushed him away, hurt him and asked him to be happy with someone else because there's no way I can give him what he wants and deserves with the pitiful state I'm in!" Shisui just told him he talked with Akane, not they mentioned a possible relationship.

It was none of his business, they were his friends and it was something between them only. There was no reason for him to feel a painful lump in his throat.

It was uncalled-for.

"I failed at following orders and the result was the same. Mangetsu, he..." she pointed toward a row of grave close to them, her lips trembling. "My best friend's grave is over there and I failed him. I failed him like I failed my master, I'm failing at truly be happy since he's dead because all I can see is his blood on my hands, the blood of all the innocents that Uchiha made me kill. Fuck, I failed at dying so many time but I'm failing at living because I can't detach myself from the past! I failed you because you're sick because of me, because of my village, because of my country whereas you had nothing to do with it, nothing to win in this matter! I fail at being a friend, at being a daughter, and people I love keep dying or leaving and I'm always left behind and alone and..."

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her against him, his right arm around her waist and keeping her from moving as his left hand was in her hair, auburn, now browner, locks slipping through his fingers. He was the first to criticize himself, but he hated how powerless she made him feel with her speech.

"How much..." he started slowly, Akane's forehead against his shoulder and her body frozen against him. "How much have you kept for yourself for the past years?" She hiccuped of surprise. "How spent are you exactly?"

"The ANBU made everything so much worse, they wanted to turn me into an emotionless tool like before and used the principles Minato-oji taught me against me. It..."

The principles of a Hokage would never go along with the Bloody Mist.

"I...I killed children, I was sent on missions with the Swordsmen when I wasn't even a genin yet to get me used to the battlefield and later I killed children...children of my own clan and...and...you don't know how it feels, to kill people from your clan, right?"

"I don't," he replied quietly with furrowed brows. She pulled her head back to look at him with a broken smile. Itachi widened his eyes a little when her cold hand touched his cheek.

"Isn't...isn't it wonderful? That you don't know how it feels to have the blood of your own relatives on your hands? It's a great feeling, isn't it? I don't remember how it feels...because I still wake up at night because of what I did...and the worst part is that I killed so many people their faces are blurry now...see, I'm a failure, I can't even remember the faces of my victims..."

"Akane..."

"But...but you don't know how it feels so that's good."

"Why would I know how it feels?" he asked coldly, catching her off-guard. "There's always been something about you that irked me, and it's how you seem, even today, making assumptions on me as if I had given you a reason to when I'm sure I haven't." She retreated her hand and looked away, as if she was caught red-handed. He was spot on. "I'm sure it has something to do with your knowledge of the coup and why my father doesn't seem to mind it. You're having a breakdown and it's not the ideal moment, but you've been spilling hints for a while. I don't need yours or Shisui's protection, stop keeping me in the dark." He bit the inside of his cheek. Akane had been an open book, maybe he needed to speak out more too to make it equal. "I want to move on from this too, I can't do it if I don't know why you know about it." Something akin to understanding flashed through her eyes and she wiped her eyes and nose.

"I didn't know it still haunted you. But..."

"Are you a seer?" he asked her without thinking. Her confused face made him realize how desperate he must have sounded and he felt a blush creeping up his neck.

"I...I guess you could put it like that in a way..." she admitted quietly, staring at his face with astonishment. "How long..."

"Too long."

"You don't find that...weird? Unbelievable? That I'm crazy?"

"It's the most believable thing about you actually." She was about to say something, but looked all around her instead. "Let's go back." He let go of her and stood up. He stretched out his hand to help her up, but after a few seconds of just staring at it, Akane got up on her own.

"Sorry, but...don't be nice for now, you might regret it afterward."

However, once they were sitting on her bed and that Itachi was looking around her room, she was quiet as the grave.

"Akane," he called her tiredly and she started.

"I'm not a seer, I swear!" He stared at her with a brow raised at her outburst. She flushed in shame. "I...I mean...I don't have visions or anything but...but it's more like someone told me stuff."

"Someone," he repeated curtly, "someone told you stuff. How..." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second. "Alright, someone told you things then. Shisui knows their identity?"

"Heh? Yeah but...I shouldn't have told him anything, I acted on the spur of the moment, without thinking about it." She crossed her hands together, playing with her thumbs. "I shouldn't have told him something so big, it's not his secret to deal with but he has been doing that for fiv...no, six years now."

"Akane," he said again and she wrinkled her nose. His patience was wearing thin.

"So...someone told me a lot of stuff...on things that would have happened until the year where we both turn twenty-two. I can't and won't tell you about what's in the future, what could happen or not because I have no idea how it will change, and most of all because when I arrived in Konoha, I told everything to the Sandaime and Tsunade-san knows everything too." He pursed his lips.

"I have to wait then." She nodded.

"The first...the first thing that would have happened and what I told Shisui immediately was...Danzou." She turned to him and put her finger under his eye. Itachi's face turned impassible. "He would have stolen one of them and because your plan was ruined, Shisui...Shisui would have given you his other eyes before killing himself in front of you, making you awaken the Mangekyou."

Alright.

That was…

Alright.

"Itachi?"

"Keep going," he ordered coldly, caring more about calming his racing heart than her. Shisui would have…

Of course she wouldn't have been able to keep it for herself. It was too urgent.

"Well...because of that the coup was going to happen and the Elders, more like Danzou, gave you a choice. They were going to wipe out the whole clan, and, or you could be among them and be killed, or you could do it yourself and spare Sasuke."

"So I killed them all," Itachi whispered in a passive voice. He vaguely felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You did," she confirmed and he stood up, pacing nervously in front of her.

He would have killed them all. All of them except for Sasuke. His family, his clan against his village. Suddenly, he understood why Akane was not surprised he had acted that way.

He could have made that choice on a bigger scale.

He did not know what was the funniest in a morbid way: that he would have obeyed or that he wasn't even that surprise he would have been given such an order.

"After?"

"Itachi, maybe you should..."

"After!?" he barked at her, ignoring the obvious worry on her face.

"You join the Akatsuki as a spy for Konoha, set Sasuke on a path of revenge and hatred to kill you and assume the rank of internationally wanted S-rank missing-nin. After the crush of Konoha, you come back with Hoshigaki-san to take a look at Naruto, send Kakashi into a super brutal torture genjutsu oblivion and do the same with Sasuke when he finds you with Naruto."

"Your father is Hoshigaki Kisame's partner."

"Well that's..."

"Akane."

"Hey, I changed one thing and the Butterfly Effect happened! I'm not responsible in how the universe is compensating what changed! Shisui being alive gave Mangetsu almost three more years as he was supposed to die the day he met him! I know, when he was poisoned he confessed it wasn't the first time!" At this point, she was standing up and her fists were clenched in frustration. "Things changed and keep changing and I'm trying to keep up and adapt with what I was told. That's why Tsunade-san asked me and Kiri to take Sasuke in if he tried anything, he...he would have succeeded otherwise, nobody was there to stop him after Naruto. It's...it's a fucked up situation Itachi. I should have known it would be fucked up the moment I set foot in Konoha."

"What was your life then?" he asked her in a hollow voice. She sighed.

"I would have resumed my life with Mom and tended to the mental wounds Kiri gave me, up until I was sixteen, seventeen. At that moment, the...the Akatsuki would have sent Sasori to...I would have crushed on him and not be careful enough and he killed Mom. I went completely numb to the world around me after that and gave a big middle-finger to anything shinobi related."

"You stayed retired then," he murmured. "You weren't thrown back into it, you stayed away."

"Itachi..."

"I'm sorry."

"What fo...Itachi?" His back to her, he snorted quietly.

"I'm sorry." She sighed behind him.

"Don't, I didn't do it just for you. Konoha was the place my uncle loved the most, that welcomed my aunt. She was friends with your mother! The Uchiha clan was part of that picture and I felt like I owned it to them to talk if it could help." She clicked her tongue and sneaked in front of him, cupping his cheeks to make him look at her.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, eyes closed as a tear escaped one of them, rolling down to his chin.

"You didn't do anything, don't be. I'm in the middle of a breakdown, but I'll get better. I always do ultimately."

"Why you though…?"

"It doesn't matter, it fell upon my shoulders and I'm acting accordingly to it. Don't cry, nothing happened and you didn't do anything, they're all alive and you...you still can go home. Fugaku-san grabbed me by my collar and lifted me from the floor when he learned his sons would kill one another, it made him rethink things quickly." He nodded and wiped his tears away with his thumb. "Me going back to Kiri...was an unexpected turn of events, sure, but the Resistance was ready faster as I had information about the Uchiha and there will be an alliance, so that's cool!"

"You know who he is." It was not an accusation, merely a statement. Her face became distant.

"I do, in time you will too. We still need proofs. So far, I still need to report what I saw in the fight. He can phase through things and attacks don't really..." Itachi grabbed her arms with wide, alarm eyes.

"Really?"

"Yeah, and then after my fight with Yagura gave me a speech and left when Kakashi arrived, saying he was always here at the wrong moment."

"And he knew Kakashi-san?" She nodded and yelped when she was crushed against his chest.

"It...Itachi? You know him?"

"He killed my teammate when I was a genin," he whispered quickly. She tensed in his arms when he hugged her tighter. "That's how I got the Sharingan, because he killed Tenma and now he..."

She placed her hands on his waist and walked toward the bed, making him fall on it.

"Alright big guy, we switched roles and I'm not the best at comforting people. You huh...should sleep! Yeah, sleep sounds awesome!"

"Akane."

"I'll take your bed." She managed to put him under the sheets without him protesting. He sat up against the pillow and grabbed her arm.

"Don't, it's your bed." She bit her bottom lip and looked at him, how hollow and broken he looked.

"But you..." She found herself under the covers, between Itachi's legs and him hugging her, his forehead on her shoulder as her back was against him. "What am I, the Sunday whore?"

"It's not like that," Itachi mumbled weakly.

"I know, it's just..." He leaned back.

"You're right, I'll go," he said quietly but she kept him from moving.

"Don't, you don't want to be alone, do you?" No response. "Then we'll keep that between us, like that entire night. Okay?" After a couple of silent seconds, he nodded and went back to his original position. "Good night."

"...night..."

It was a lot to take in. Too much actually. He already felt terrible for spying on his clan, learning what could have happened made that so much worse.

He didn't want to deal with it alone.

When I woke up, I was alone in my bed, no traces of Itachi having slept here anymore. I wondered how embarrassed he was of having showed himself so vulnerable last night, but a part of me was happy.

It meant he still trusted me a little bit, right?

I sat up and stretched out my arms, wincing at the pain in my neck. Right, my sleeping position had not exactly been the best.

I got up and changed my clothes quickly for pajamas just to pretend I had not slept in yesterday's clothes, and left for the kitchen. I stopped at the door, staring at Haku talking to Itachi. It wasn't these two that surprised me, or Naoto's absence because he was probably at the Daimyo's, but Utakata-senpai's presence here, calmly sipping on his fuming cup of tea.

"Morning eyesore," he greeted me. I narrowed my eyes, ignoring Haku and Itachi looking at me.

"You," I growled, making him raise a brow. "You should have told me!"

"Oh, Akiko-san told you everything before she left I presume?" I nodded curtly. "The Yondaime banned everyone from saying anything."

"So what!? I still deserved to know! You were Fubuki's best friend and you didn't tell me!"

"I didn't tell you I almost dropped you on the head when you were six months either, but you don't seem to care about that." I gaped at him.

"Senpai!" I yelled in shock. "I was a delight!" He scoffed.

"Who told you that?"

"My godfather! No, wait...he was just happily ignoring my flaws, Kakashi always said I was a demon. You're right."

"Almost nineteen years but you finally admitted it."

"You love me now?" He stared at me and my cheeky grin, just to turn his head away from me. "Come on senpa..." I was stopped by Haku throwing a toast in my mouth.

"You were being too shameless, stop reading these books." I took a big bite of the toast and pointed the rest toward Haku.

"Over my dead body!" I made a movement too brutal and rubbed my neck.

"You have an aching neck too Uzu-nee?"

"'too'?"

"Itachi-san." I spared him a look and nodded to myself. That was why his head leaning forward.

"It will be fine soon," he sighed in his cup of tea.

"It better, I'm not giving you back to your parents with a stiff neck, Mikoto-san will end me on sight." He glared at me and I shot him a nervous smile. "Yeah, I was treating you like a kid just now, sorry."

"Uzu-nee, look at that," Haku told me, pointing at a paper on the table. I raised a brow and walked to it. "I found it while I was looking into some of the Yuki clan's belongings. It's a family tree."

"There was that much people?" I wondered out loud. "Oh, I'm unnamed baby! And we have an ancestor in common five generations before us? Wow. It was before the foundation of the village. Thinking about it, senpai, you're related to a Kage?"

"The Third." I widened my eyes in shock. He was unfazed. "I thought it was obvious."

"Well...I mean...I didn't think you would just say it like that."

"Well, I did. By the way, I'll go with you to Konoha."

Huh...okay?

"I'll check the apartments," Haku informed me.

"Three bedrooms?"

"Yes." I smiled at him and made myself a tea.

Things were calming down.

It felt good.

After a day where Itachi mostly isolated himself, he came to my room and thanked me. I smiled happily at him, and the next day we were off to Konoha.

Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks to NguyetMieu and kankananime123 for the reviews! And Zabuza really ends up dying all the time? I've never noticed that x)

Bye!