Disclaimer: I own the OCs in this fic, the rest is Masashi Kishomoto's. Sorry for any spelling mistakes or any OCCness.
Character age:
Akane, Itachi: 20
Naruto, Sasuke: 15
Shisui: 24
Kakashi: 29
"Is it true you fought against someone from here?" Hyo asked us with curiosity. I shrugged as we stopped in front of the room we were in yesterday.
"They had a knife with your emblem on it." The Uzumaki hummed at Sasuke's answer and we entered the room. Okuni-san and Wataru-san were already there, and we sat in front of them.
"Have you slept well?" The Uzukage asked. I nodded curtly.
"The knife you gave us yesterday is a model our fighters wield." I glanced at the Uchiha.
"We figured that much." He scoffed.
"I mean, among the Uchihas and Uzumakis." Yeah...it would explain their, his abilities, identical to the guy's I took down with me seven years ago.
I had a bad feeling toward this entire mission.
"But I thought we were forbidden to go in the Elemental Nations!" Hyo yelled, Min plugging one of her ear.
"It is forbidden. These knives are all identical, therefore we will investigate. I hope you do not have a problem staying here until we know who the culprit is." We both shook our head in negation. "Fine, Taiga we will proceed to interrogate them." I blinked, finally noticing the man in the corner of the room, standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. He was an Uchiha, it was obvious. His curly black hair was tied up in a low ponytail resting on one of his shoulder, his bang hiding his left eye. His right one was staring at Sasuke and I.
First impression? I didn't like him. I...had a bad feeling, deep in my guts.
"Right away," he finally said quietly, straightening up. He started to walk out of the room, but stopped in front of me with a frown. "I heard what you said yesterday. Thank you for Shisui." I raised a brow and knew Sasuke was looking at him in wonder.
"You know him?" He smirked down at me.
"I guess my little brother doesn't mention me a lot, I left a long time ago." I jumped on my feet, wide eyes stuck to him.
"Shisui has a brother?" Sasuke mumbled next to me.
"You disappeared during the last war, it's the only thing he told me," I whispered in my shock. That...I could see some resemblance with Shisui now but...but God did Shisui feel normal and not creepy like that...Taiga, was it?
"You're friends with him?" I nodded numbly. Friends and more at times but...fuck, Shisui's older brother? "Do you know how my parents are doing?"
"Oh...your father's dead and..." Wait, did Shisui's mom die too? He never talked about her and had always lived on his own ever since I went to Konoha with Mom.
"I see," he said before leaving.
"Min, Hyo, you will be their guides until their departure," Okuni-san told the two. Hyo grinned whereas Min pouted, puffing her cheeks.
I shared a look with Sasuke.
The sooner we knew the truth, the better it would be.
Just like that, a month flew by. We were showed the surroundings and told more about this continent. Long ago, the Land of Water was actually a part of it, hence the similarities in the folklore. However, one day, a natural disaster fractured the earth and my country became an island, now attached to the Elemental Nations.
"And that?" Sasuke asked as we were walking in the countryside, near a field of amaranths. He was looking down at a ditch further down, where no grass or water was. There was just an old statue in the middle.
"Oh, well, do you know the legend of the Rabbit Goddess?" Min asked us and I froze, like Sasuke who remembered all too well everything I told him. "Our country was known as the Land of Ancestors a millennium ago. There was something called the God Tree, but it was destroyed along with the Goddess, but it's just all bullshit."
"Don't disrespect the legend like that," Hyo scolded her with a dark expression. "Otherwise..." He widened his eyes and adopted a 'scary' face. "The Goddess will come and take you at night!"
They started to bicker as my eyes went back to the fucking vestige of the first God Tree. It was true, it...fuck, it was something old Sasuke had never found before.
I gulped.
This whole place...was too close for comfort.
There was a violent draft and some red petals of the amaranths were blown away by the wind.
"There's a rumor that says that if you follow the amaranths, you will find the Goddess's hideout," Min added, pulling on the older Uzumaki's cheek. After all, she was thirteen and him twenty, like me.
Follow the amaranths huh...As we left I looked at them above my shoulders.
They were pretty.
"So, the more souls I get, the more the marks will spread on my body until it reaches my seal. Only then will I be able to 'summon' the souls trapped in the Shinigami's stomach, the ones I had nothing to do with the sealing." Okuni-san nodded.
"Exactly, depending on the quality of the souls, the mark will spread more or less."
Sitting with my legs crossed in front of him in clothes typical from here, black sweatpants in cotton and a red hoodie with the hood on, because I felt like it made me less visible even if I knew it wasn't the case because I was fully aware of the 'Yurei-sama' when I walked around that part of town. Also, they gave me shoes, black ankle boots with thick sole and shoelaces, but most of all, they were not opened. The fashion here was different, there were common influences but overall, it was different.
It was Heaven to walk with closed shoes without anyone looking at you strangely. For now, I was just in white socks though.
"Now, from the results, there are four souls in your seal but you can only reach one. Everything about that seal is linked. The easier it is for you to activate the Claw whenever you want and not when it wants, the easier it will be to reach the other souls." I guess the perspective of being helped by the Shodai was a good thing but...argh, I didn't want to go through the same mess it was to cut the connection with oji-chan!
"Thanks." I growled at him, my eyes closed. I listened to the Uzukage's instructions, that he got from Umiko-san, on how I needed to focus my energy in my core, in my seal, to really be able to identify the power of the Shinigami.
Seven years and I had to go on another continent to have some training for my seal. Which, to be fair, was basically the same than Naruto had with Jiraya-san to use Kurama's power.
I was a jinchuriki rip-off.
I stopped breathing for a second when I felt a dark energy in my own. I felt myself falling asleep and I opened my eyes at that moment, catching a glimpse of purplish chakra disappearing around my left arm.
"As the Shinigami is the God of Death, when you feel its power you feel yourself being attracted to it. If you let yourself completely at its mercy, then you will most likely die."
"Yeah..." I whispered, catching my breath. "Yeah...makes sense. Did Umiko-san have a way to push the need to surrender to it away?" He pursed his lips.
"She often said creating a better future for her loved ones was what was keeping her going. It was what she used to counter the Shinigami's influence." Sure, the guy may have made a pact with Tensui-san, all they wanted was souls. Ours, or others, but the sooner the better.
"Understood." His eyes were clouded for a brief second.
"It was also what made her fight during death like situation. Yureis are more easily tempted by death and dying than regular people."
"I noticed that," I mumbled as I closed my eyes once again, ready to try again. "We're suicidal in a way. We've 'died' once and kind of came back to life, it...it kinda put this idea we're invincible in our mind."
"You too?" Hyo asked me from his spot against the wall. I opened an eye and shot him a look.
"At times yeah, but I know people still a lot stronger than me that could kill me in the blink of an eye." Yeah, if it wasn't for Dad, I would be screwed by the Sharingan. I closed my eye once again and opened them, to be face to face with oji-chan. "An idea?"
"I don't know, I would say to meditate here, but I fear the Shinigami's influence may contaminate this place." I puffed my cheeks. "However, it did something, what you've just done."
"Ha?" He pointed behind him and I widened my eyes, running to the other side of the room.
On the ground were the three Hokage, seemingly sleeping. Minato-oji-chan joined me.
"Me having half of the Kyuubi and you being so close to Naruto for two years created a very easy path for my soul to be awakened in your seal. They were the three first Hokage, they were all spectacular shinobi, it would not surprise me if they correspond to the criteria to be awakened."
"But how?"
"I have a theory, but it will take time and effort on your part." I snorted in disdain. As if I didn't already know that. "Don't give me that look, you're not too old for a lecture." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "They appeared after you tried to get a hold of the Shinigami's power. The more your control over it is good, the more the chances for them to wake up will be high."
"Fuck, I want to help Sasuke investigate too! I don't have the ti..."
"Actually, it's the best moment for you to really focus on the Shinigami Seal for once. Sasuke told you he had this, and that you could trust him while you were getting every scrapes of information you could on your condition. So, trust him."
"I don't want that Taiga to get too close to him."
"You really don't like him."
"Look, it's just...there's already the possibility the guy I died against before is somewhere lurking around. I mean...Taiga is Shisui's brother and I feel terrible for not liking him one bit but...I can't help it, there's something in my guts telling me he's very bad news." Oji-chan stared at me and then, put his hand in my hair. I raised surprised eyes at him. "Oji-chan?"
"I share your feeling more than I wish to," he admitted seriously. "Be careful."
I gulped.
It was never a good sign when someone of Namikaze Minato's caliber said they agreed with you on that kind of stuff.
Never.
"Huh, it explains why the seal is so similar to the one used for a jinchuriki. It's basically a rip-off."
"A lot of powerful seals aiming at sealing powerful being inside a human host find their origins in the Shinigami seal, directly or indirectly. It...inspired many jutsu, sometimes they ended up being forbidden ones." I looked at Okuni-san in wonder.
"Like what?" He sighed deeply and stopped walking in the middle of the street, Hyo still following close behind like a shadow. Min was helping Sasuke with the investigation.
"Like that jutsu the Nidaime Hokage invented. The...Edo Tensei I believe? He was obsessed with the Death Reaper Seal, after Umiko-san passed away he investigated it until it had no secret for him. He...he really despised what the Claw would do to her and..."
"And he replicated the Claw's ability to summon the souls trapped in the seal," I finished for him.
"Except that they are just reanimated beings and can be controlled. You...you can't control them, if one day you summon them, their presences will only depend on your stamina." I nodded thoughtfully and a voice yelled at us to stop. We all turned around the see Min running toward us. She stopped, breathing hard, her hands on her knees.
"Sa...Sasuke-san and...and Wataru-nim...found the culprit."
It did not take long to join them, and I was taken back at the display in the room we were in when we met Okuni-san and Wataru-san. There was a man, with some Uchiha features, on his knees, wit a right eye so swollen and purple he probably couldn't see anymore. His hands were tied in his back and next to him was Taiga, arms crossed over his chest and looking down at the guy. My eyes lingered on him and his demeanor for a second until Sasuke walked next to me with a frown.
"We found his fingerprints on the weapon, Taiga arrested him," Sasuke told me quietly.
"I thought they were not fighters," I replied with a sneer. Sasuke gauged the state of the 'culprit'.
"I know, I was surprised too."
"I'm innocent!" I stared blankly at the man. "I...I don't even have the Sharingan!" Taiga smacked him so hard he fell on the ground with a whimper.
"His seal is gone," Taiga stated. "Curiosity pushed him to explore a place he shouldn't have been to."
"Do you have more proofs?" I asked them. Wataru-san shot me a look.
"Taiga looked in his memories and saw him attacking you two." Right, that Taiga was trusted but…
I didn't blink when blood spurted from the man's throat, Taiga's knife now bloody.
"Leaving the country for the Elemental Nation without permission is a crime, and attacking people there is equal to the death penalty," Okuni-san told me quietly. Two guys took the body away, leaving a puddle of blood behind.
"Now this problem is solved, you can go home with an easy mind," the Uchiha leader added with a somber expression, probably due to the fact he had lost someone.
He was wrong though, I was sure of it. An innocent had just been killed.
"There is a party tomorrow night though, you are welcomed if you want to come." I nodded at Okuni-san.
"I think it could be nice to relax after everything." With this, Sasuke and I went to our room. I slumped on the bed as Sasuke sat on the fuuton on the floor. "Damn…"
"You accepted to get the real culprit to reveal himself, didn't you?" I stared thoughtfully at the scarlet sheet of the bed.
"We came here to investigate and it cost an innocent man his life. We're getting to the bottom of this." From the glint in his dark eyes, I knew he agreed totally with my decision.
"It will be harder for you to train the Claw once you're gone," Hyo told me as I was sipping on my water. I was wearing a black sleeveless dress with a cleavage in 'V', it was fitted at my waist and pooled down at my ankles without any particular shape. The hills I was wearing were more comfortable I was expecting them to be and I had no bandages around my arm. Everybody knew about it anyway, why bother hiding it?
"Okuni-san mentioned giving me things to help me."
"Oh, I..." He started to snicker and I followed his gaze, smirking at Sasuke's angry face and Min's embarrassed one, caused by her baby pink dress probably.
"Why can't I wear black like Akane-san?" she muttered once they were next to us. I took the plate of food from Sasuke's hands and ignored his glare. He lost a bet, he had to follow the 'do everything I ask you to for a day' rule that followed.
"Because! It's Cholloma Day, deal with it Min!"
"Hear that Sasuke? Deal with it." The Uchiha glared harder at me.
In two months, he had the time to get to know Min better and got along with her well, actually helping her with her sharingan, just like I got along with Hyo. They were the two designated persons to keep us company anyway
"Overall, how is your training going Akane-san?" I looked down at Min.
"Well, I can keep up the Claw but it's draining. I'm an Uzumaki and it's extremely chakra draining for me."
"That's why non Uzumaki people who use the technique fail." I shot a look at Hyo, who had raised a finger in front of him to pretend he was a teacher and us the students. "Only an Uzumaki, with their longevity and powerful chakra, can handle making a pact with the Shinigami. Only these two things can fight back the Shinigami's influence over the body and keep it stable."
"You need to get your nose out of these books," I told him in a scolding tone. He looked briefly panicked for a second, and when he saw my teasing smirk, he sighed and placed a hand over his heart.
"You're mean, Yureis are as respected as the Uzukage, don't overuse that power." I chuckled behind my glass.
It was just a party to celebrate the national holiday. It was in a part of town I was not used to, there were a lot of people chatting, but I was still keeping an eye on Taiga. So far, he was acting pretty normal, but I…
Damn it, there was just something off with that guy, Shisui's brother or not! For all I knew, he could be the guy we were looking fo…
My lips parted in a silent 'oh'. What if he was the culprit, what if he...what if he was the guy I sealed before I died?
But he was Shisui's brother.
I...he was Shisui's brother, I couldn't just accuse him like that, could I?
There was nothing strange for, I'd say, an hour maybe, until I caught a glimpse of him leaving the place. I exchanged a quick glance with Sasuke and made him understand I would follow him and that he needed to stay here because otherwise it would look suspicious.
And follow him I did. Through the crowded street bathed in the beam of the setting sun to the red amaranths under the moonlight. My attire was not making my task easy, but I was managing it.
The hairs on my arm stood on end when he went to what appeared to be a cave hidden behind the foliage of a tree at the end of the field of amaranths. Alright, I now had two option. Go back and talk to Sasuke, or follow Taiga in what was obviously the lion's den, just asking to be eaten like a sacrificial virgin. If I went back to Sasuke though, this chance of discovering what Taiga was up to would vanish in the blink of an eye!
With a deep breath, I went in the cave. Sasuke would kill me later on.
I wrinkled my nose at the heavy smell of humidity in the air. The rocky walls around me were bumpy and damp, where some climbing plants had decided to settle down. I looked in disgust at a millipede going back to the darkness of a hole in the wall. The ground started to go down steeply and I had to use the wall to stay up, some rocks at my feet breaking under my heels.
After a long while walking in the dark, I walked in a vast room, if I could call it like that. There was dust in the air and we were clearly underground. My eyes traveled along a piece of wood, that revealed to be a part of a huge dry root, itself connected to other roots and to what was seemingly the beginning on an old tree. It did not go up to the ceiling and I gulped.
It was the God Tree.
It was that God Tree that gave Kaguya her chakra fruit. At least, what still remained of it a thousand years after the events. It clearly was not just a tree.
Oh, there was a table under the root when said root was a few meters above the ground. I ran to it and rummaged through the papers scattered on it. One caught my attention though. I grabbed it and squinted to read the words on it.
'Trap…' I knew that much and it was not reassuring how it was written on a piece of paper. 'Chakra free zone woman.'
I blinked.
Chakra free zone?
I try to use some to check, but found I couldn't.
Oh cr…
"On a scale of one to ten, how much did you feel the trap coming Yurei-sama?" I couldn't respond to the snarky question. I just had the time to turn around before I was violently hit in the face. I spat blood and fell, my head hitting the table.
Then, I totally blacked out.
I came back to my senses with a moan of pain. My head was hurting me so much I wanted to black out again. I blinked several times, trying to see something, and tried to move. I found myself unable to do so as I was tied up on the ground, my wrists and ankles stuck together in my back.
"You know, I have to admit you're kind of cute, I'm sure Shisui isn't indifferent to you. Too bad you had to be the prey." I glared at Taiga, leaning against a giant root in front of me.
"What's your evil plan then?" He tilted his head on the side.
"Evil plan? I'm not evil."
"Yeah? Then...then why did you kill that guy to save your ass?"
"Because I don't want to be exiled," he replied in a deadpanned voice. "If anything, you're more evil than me. You've had your doubts about me ever since you saw me, I know that. However, you didn't say a word about it. I was wondering why at first, but then the reason was clear to me. I'm Shisui's brother, you're friends with him, so you didn't want to accuse me." He walked up to me and I bit the inside of my cheek at how right he was. "You could have avoided his death and your pathetic situation right now, but here we are. I thought I had broken your back at the harbor, I guess I should have hit harder after all."
"If you're not evil as you say, then what do you want?"
"Me? I just don't want to go blind, that's all."
"Wh..."
"I mean, to get out alive of the war, I used the Izanagi and lost an eye. The other is losing its light because of the Mangekyou and I still want the Sharingan. The thing is, nobody has it here except for Min, and she most probably won't awaken the Mangekyou so..."
"You won't have the Eternal Mangekyou unless you get Shisui's eyes you moron."
"Who said anything about that?" I frowned. "I want the Sharingan and the Mangekyou, that's all. It's incredible what these roots turned into dust and ingested can do to you. I stopped losing my sight, but I want new eyes. When I heard rumors about an Uchiha in Kiri when I was on Sen'i, I couldn't believe it." I swallowed back the lump in my throat.
"You want Sasuke to awaken the Mangekyou," I whispered quietly. He grinned at me like a mad man.
"Yeah, too bad for you you're the sacrifice needed for this." He went to the table as dread filled me. I was powerless and defenseless, I couldn't use chakra at all and physically speaking, he was stronger than me. "Then, they started to investigate because of the knife. One genjutsu later, that guy was accused and Wataru believed me without the shadow of a doubt. Wanna know why? It's because they're not shinobi and give their trust way too easily. I should feel guilty to do that you know, I mean they welcomed me when I arrived, completely lost and starved, but I don't! Once a shinobi, always a shinobi." He went back to me, crouched next to me and grabbed my face between his fingers, pressing hard on my cheeks which made me pout. "Just know it's not personal, toward you or Fugaku-sama's youngest. It will be quick and painless."
He let go of my face and I grunted.
Damn it.
"How do you expect Sasuke to come here by the way?"
"Because like you, I don't act alone?" He really was treating me like an idiot, wasn't he?
I needed to get out of here alive, but Sasuke...if he came then…
I started to fidget harder to break free from my ties, but I only felt pain in my shoulders by doing so. It was too tight.
My brain working as fast as it could, I tried to find something, anything really, to get me out of this situation.
There was nothing. Nothing except roots and dirt. No sharp object was in my sight. Against my will, my stomach starting aching because of the fear crawling up inside of me. I really couldn't use chakra.
I was not going to die, right? I mean...I still had stuff to do, so I would not die, right?
I think I lost track of time in my internal wailing because one moment there was no sound, Taiga just waiting, and the next there was a shadow in front of the entrance.
"I almost waited."
"I'm right on time, ain't I?" Sasuke's cold voice replied. I was a bad influence, my sarcasm was a bad influence. "Using a traumatized and terrified thirteen year-old is pretty low."
Min then?
In what kind of mess did we get into?
Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks to NguyetMieu, DominoDuh and kankananime123 for the reviews! No, there is no other clan.
Bye!