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

"She's taking a while," Hyo noticed with a frown. Sasuke hummed in agreement. Akane was taking too long.

"Sasuke-san, we should go looking for her."

"Righ..."

"Not you Hyo," Min cut him off, nervously Sasuke noted. "I mean...if she comes back, you can explain where we are."

"Oh...sure, go then."

Sasuke followed the younger girl with suspicion. She knew where she was going and did not know how to hide it. They were not shinobi around here except for Taiga and the oldest Uzumakis, and Min was no exception. She did not know how to trick someone.

As they reached the field of red amaranths, Sasuke smirked to himself. From behind, he could spot all traces of doubt, nervousness and fear coming from Min. She was leading him straight in a trap where Akane was most likely in already, but she did not want to do it.

"What does Taiga have on you to make you take me to the trap Akane is already in?" The young girl froze in front of the entrance of a cave. Under the moon, the pink of her dress was like washed out of its color and looked like a dull gray.

"Tr...trap? I don't...see what you're talking ab...about." She turned to face him with fake confidence on her face.

"Do you think the lies of a frightened little girl can fool me?" he asked her rhetorically. Taking a few steps forward, he was satisfied to see her step back with scared eyes. "However, I know you're scared and don't want to do what you're doing. What does he have on you?"

"No...noth..."

"I'm curious too." The two Uchihas turned their eyes to the red-haired man coming their way with a serious face. "Sorry, I know I was supposed to stay behind but...well, I just didn't. Min, tell me, is Taiga the reason you hijacked your seal and awakened the Sharingan?"

"During an extremely emotional moment, chakra is sent to your eyes and awakens the Sharingan, the seal you all have here is supposed to block it. But seals can be broken if the chakra within it is weaker than the one trying to break it," Sasuke recited. "How did you awaken yours?"

"When her parents died, but the question is how did they truly die?"

"He said it was an accident!" she suddenly cried out with shaking legs. "He...He said it was an accident and that he'd help me with my eyes!"

"Min, from the beginning please," Hyo asked her sternly, "I'm afraid we don't have a lot of time." Min pinched her lips together and nodded.

"I don't know why exactly, but one day he came at home and fought with Dad, saying Dad couldn't tell what he was doing with the old tree to Wataru-nim. Dad tried to reason him and told him it was bad for him and that the seal was there for a reason, but Taiga didn't listen and pushed him. Dad's head hit the wall violently and started bleeding, Mom came but Taiga he…he said he panicked when Mom went to Dad and he knocked her on the head with a bottle. I...I was in my room and saw...saw it..."

"And ever since he made you shut up about it," Hyo finished with a grunt. "That asshole!"

"Accident or not, he murdered two people and has to be judged for this. What is he doing here? Do you know?"

"I...he's going blind because of the Sharingan in his remaining eye and he found something with the roots that slows the blindness down."

"He has the Mangekyou then," Sasuke whispered with a frown.

Then, with how people here had their eyes sealed, and with Min being from here, Taiga could have wanted a new pair of eyes. Akane had told him the person was spying on him.

Taiga wanted new eyes, but with the Mangekyou. Not necessarily the Eternal Mangekyou, because if he had found something to counter the blindness...it would not be a bother.

Sasuke took a deep breath and looked at the moon. He was the target. Taiga wanted him to awaken the Mangekyou and then steal it from him. Neither him or Akane would be a loss on this continent.

And now, here they were.

"Neither Min or I are fighters Sasuke," Hyo told him with urgency in his voice, "but there is a seal down there."

"You know its purpose?"

"Yeah, I read about it. As it is the roots of the God Tree from a millennium ago, although dead now, they're still harmful to basically everything as they actually drain chakra from anything nearby. It's not...immediate, but progressive, that's why nothing grows around it. People...it started to harm them too, so a seal was placed to stop it."

"It contains the hunger of the roots." Sasuke frowned at Hyo shaking his head.

"Nope, it blocks chakra from being used within a certain radius. You go there and...and you're regular. From what I understood, they never succeeded in creating a seal able to contain the roots hunger."

"It explains why Akane isn't here then," Sasuke muttered, frustrated, "that idiot realized it too late."

"So, what do we do?"

"You find another way in, another exit for us. I'll take care of him."

On this, he ran in the cave.

"I heard you wanted my eyes."

"It's true."

"Sasuke, you can't use your chakra here!"

"I know," he replied without averting his eyes from Taiga. "You don't seem like you can help a lot." Aouch, my dignity. "So, using Min's fear to make her obey you?" Wh…

"Huh, she talked then."

Sasuke raised his arm and threw something at me. I blinked and quickly turned around to grab the kunai.

"Unlike her I came prepared." He was having a dig at me, wasn't he?

I heard them clashing with each other whereas I was cutting the rope as fast as I could. I sighed in relief when my ankles were separated from my wrists and proceeded to free my hands. Once that was done, I cut the rope between my ankles and rubbed my painful joints.

Sasuke slid in front of me in a puff of dust, his katana dug in the earth.

"There's a seal, find a way to break it," he ordered me quietly and I found myself arguing with him.

"We should run away!"

"That guy killed you before and committed other crimes, break the seal!" I didn't argue this time. I got up, stumbled a little, and left them at their fight.

I tried to block the sound of fighting off, running and looking for the seal. Sasuke didn't even say what it did, but from the place, I guess it had something to do with the tree. Usually, for a seal to be the most useful, it needs to be placed strategically...so the center maybe?

I tried to jump on a root and barely touched the bottom of it. I sighed and ran along it to climb on it when it touched the ground. Crap, we shinobi really were dependent on chakra, weren't we? I took off my shoes and had to go slowly to keep me balanced. I dived in front of me and almost fell when a shuriken flew above me. Deciding no to get up, I crawled along the root and congratulated myself once I reached the center. There was a huge seal indeed.

Carefully, I slid along the wood to be next to my goal.

Now, how to break a seal if I could not use chakra?

"The Claw."

"What?"

"The Claw. It can go through the seal of a jinchuriki. It is the energy of the Shinigami, I doubt there is only chakra in it. Maybe you can use it to break the seal. It's worth a shot."

"But I..."

"Akane, now isn't the time to doubt yourself or argue."

I gulped loudly, a drop of cold sweat running from my scalp down my back.

Come on Akane, you could at least try.

I took a deep, deep breath and focused like I did in training. As Minato said, I felt my left arm warming up and soon I felt the cold power of the Shinigami around it. As strange as it was, I was welcoming now. It was like a reminder of my old life.

I plunged my fingers in the seal and blinked when they grabbed the symbols like it was a paper, crumbling them in the process. I raised my hand, the symbols following it like it was a sheet and I clenched my hand harder. Cracks appeared and the seal in my hand broke apart. I was startled by the sudden return of my chakra but didn't stop the Claw.

Now I could use chakra, I could feel...something from that old piece of wood.

This shit was bad.

As I dug the Claw deeply in the dead wood, I turned my head on the side at Sasuke's grunt of pain. I couldn't see well from where I was, but he was clenching the base of the side of his neck.

No time for that. Much like the first time I used the Claw, my instinct kicked in and I pushed the energy of the Shinigami in the wood. Purple light started to come out of the cracks in it and soon, it collapsed. Hopefully, I landed on my feet with no problem.

I skirted pieces of wood. I knew it was Shisui's older brother, I knew he still cared about what happened to him but...but my eyes were not deceiving me. The light Sasuke's Chidori made clearly made me see the blood staining his jacket and collar.

I knew he was Shisui's brother, but I had let that fact clouding my judgment for too long. Sasuke was way more important than Taiga, who was nothing more than a secondary character.

"Get his eye!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Sasuke lunged at him, the lightnings shining brightly in his hand.

What happened after was a blur. One moment I was watching Sasuke running at Taiga on solid ground, the next moment said ground started to move under my feet and I was thrown between them. The earth wrapped itself solidly around my legs. I did not have the time to try to get out of it that the blinding light in Sasuke's hand, and his wide red eyes filled with horror, probably like mine, was right in front of me.

I could not see a thing for a solid second, and no sound could be heard. Not even the chirping like sound of the Chidori.

Then, I threw up blood. An excruciating pain erupted in my right side and I could vaguely feel my dress getting heavier and wetter.

"God no..." I heard Sasuke whispered weakly. Taiga bust into laughter behind me, or I thought so.

My ears only heard buzzing. My legs gave up under my weight and I almost hit the ground, as Sasuke caught me just before. This situation was painfully familiar, the opponent, the dead one…

This time though, Sasuke was crying.

"Nee-san!" Blood really tasted like iron.

I didn't want to die now.

I didn't but...but how could I survive Sasuke's Chidori exactly? My organs were...destroyed…

I tried to focus on Sasuke's face, but apart from tears falling on my face I couldn't...I…

I…

Cold...I was...cold...sleepy.

He shook me but my body was…

My body was shutting down.

"Like I told her before," Taiga started behind Sasuke, who put Akane on the ground, "it's really not personal. You just happened to be there Sasuke." The black oval in his eye turned back to three tomoe. "Even though, she destroyed the cure to my blindness so I'm not going to cry her death."

He stopped talking when the mark in Sasuke's neck started to spread and his skin turned gray. Instinctively, he took a step back when the youngest stood up and turned his head to him, enough for Taiga to see a different pattern in his eye. Instead of the usual three tomoe, the pattern was now three intersecting red ellipses.

He looked around him when black flames appeared around him. Slowly, much like a predator walking toward their prey, Sasuke inched toward him, the black flames opening when he walked in the circle of black fire. Blood had poured from his right eye to his jaw.

Behind him, Hyo and Min had arrived and were staring at Akane's body with wide eyes.

"You two," Sasuke said coldly, "move her body away."

Whereas Min was shaking like a leaf, Hyo gulped and scooped the warm body in his arms. They ran away to the surface through their new exit, and just as they reached the outside, the ground shook behind them.

"Okay, okay..." Hyo muttered as he put Akane on the ground. "Okay, she's still warm, Min start the chest compression."

"For what? She's dead!"

"Do as I say!" The Uzumaki replied harshly, taking a paper from his pocket. From it, he unsealed multiple seals and medical equipment. "I can't believe Okuni-sama was right."

"Wh..."

"Chest compression! There are roughly five to six minutes after the death for..."

"Not with that kind of wound! Half of her intestines are destroyed!"

"Not for long."

Following the instructions he had, he placed five seals around the hole in her abdomen. Even if they were not shinobi, they had not stopped their fuinjutsu, they just focused on other subjects.

The medical field was an excellent example of that.

Activating the seal, Hyo was glad to see the blood stopping and the wound like frozen in time. Then, taking two other seals, bigger and more complex, he put them on the edge of the torn flesh. Blue chakra started to cover the organs and linked the pieces together. The Uzumaki widened his eyes when the flesh just started to grow back, the intestines slowly but surely reforming themselves.

"What's going on?"

"Progress." Hyo looked up at the old man who knelt next to them, staring at the pale face of the woman. "The syringe, in her heart."

Was it blood in the tube? They did not have the time to wonder about that that the young Uzumaki stuck the needle in her chest, pushing the liquid in her heart. There was nothing for a couple of second and Min jumped at the weak beating of her heart. The body arched its back and opened the mouth, enough for the Uzukage to place his hand between the teeth.

Min and Hyo watched with a morbid fascination as the teeth sunk into the flesh and blood trickled down the chin and onto the throat. The most fascinating was how the throat was moving from the blood ingested. Green chakra surrounded the body and the seals burned, the flesh growing back and leaving a whitish spot.

Okuni removed his hand and the body took a deep breath.

"Wait...Akane-san?" Min called her, but with no response. "She...she was dead, I know she was!"

"Uzumaki's longevity..." Hyo whispered. "I mean...it probably wouldn't have worked for someone else but...she was dead. We had the good things to bring her back and...Okuni-sama!"

"I'm...fine..." the old man replied before coughing, laying on the ground. "I knew it...would happen...I lived long enough. Show her...when she wakes up..."

"Ok...Okuni-sama!" Tears running down his cheeks, Hyo stared at the smile on the old man's face. He wiped his tears away and ignored the girl's watery eyes in front of him. "Okay...we need to bring her to the hospital. She was dead for five minutes, we need to..."

"I'll seal the body." They both turned to Sasuke. His clothes were bloody and his eyes were back to their charcoal color. However, the blood dripping from his closed fist froze them both.

"What...what's in your fist?" Sasuke looked at him for a second and opened his hand, showing them an eyeball.

"She said to get his eye, for Shisui probably. Too bad it's only one." Closing his fist at the disgust on their faces, he walked closer to them. He stopped and widened his eyes at Akane's stomach rising with her breathing. "What?"

"We...we managed to bring her back," Min told him in a trembling voice. Sasuke's eyes turned to her in a second, and seeing the young girl was not lying, he dropped on his knees.

"Thank...thank God...how did you..."

"We...Okuni-sama had planned everything." Sasuke wanted to ask Hyo what he meant, but at the sight of the old man behind him, immobile, he changed his mind.

They came to investigate and brought only death with them, to people who so far had lived peacefully.

It truly was the only thing shinobi brought with them everywhere. Death and pain.

"What...where is Taiga?"

"Wataru-san arrived from nowhere before I could kill him." Sasuke ignored the shock in their eyes at how casual he sounded.

But it was his job, his career, wasn't it? Killing people was what he was trained to do.

He turned it too often toward his loved ones too.

"Let...Let's go..." Hyo barely finished his sentence that voices calling for them started to be heard. At that, he screamed and Min broke down into tears from the stress of the situation.

Mechanically, Sasuke grabbed a random seal on the ground and, with his blood, modified it to turn it into a storage seal, in which he sealed the eye. He put it in his pocket and then, fell harshly on the ground, unconscious.

So...it was depressing. Everything was in shades of gray. There was something pulling me in front of me, like a magnet, and I knew perfectly well what it was. If I let myself go this direction, I would be face to face with the Shinigami and boom, no Akane anymore, just a corpse and a forever tormented soul.

I ran the other way, through dead trees with no idea of where I was or where I was going. I knew it was far from the Shinigami though.

I couldn't die just now!

I refused to acknowledge that!

As my legs, heavy and hard to move, were moving too slow for my taste, I thought about everything I knew about Yureis. Tensui-san...mentioned that, that thanks to the Claw, I could...during times of...of death-like situation I could...meet my watching soul.

It was Itachi. I mean, old Itachi. The one I dated for three years.

To be honest, I never thought it would happen. Well, I never thought I would...was I actually dead by the way?

I wasn't sure if I wanted to see...him. Too much baggage, and he saw everything that happened these past seven years. For instance, he knew what I had to do in the Bloody Mist, or my breakdowns...oh God, he knew about Shisui and...he probably saw us kissing too.

He probably knew very well I would have continued in Konoha!

Technically, he was my ex, wasn't he? So...it was none of his business who I kissed. Well, it was not as if Itachi, no matter the version I think from Sasuke's behavior toward it, gave a damn about whether or not it was his business when it came to my love life. He used to sum it up after all, and apparently it gave him the right to criticize any guys who would show an interest in me. I used to find it cute, but thinking back on it...there were times where he was just completely ridiculous. It was low to criticize a guy who was slightly shorter than me about his height.

Hey, old Itachi could really be an asshole when he was jealous. I really hope Itachi would never have feelings for me, I would not handle his jealousy. I'd probably slap him or worst, punch him before telling him to fuck off.

Anyway, I had to find a way out and not die for good.

I needed him after all, or at least his brain.

"Itachi!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was taken back at how loud it was. "Itachi I know you're around so show up or I'll...do something bad to you!"

"If you stopped running for a second it would be easier to think about the situation you're in."

I widened my eyes and tripped on my feet, falling flat on my facing in shock of hearing...this voice again. It…

Tensui-san told me but…

It...was it really…

I raised my eyes when I heard feet stopping in front of my face. In other circumstances, I would have commented on the nail polish on the toes, but instead, my arm was gently grabbed and I was pulled onto my feet. Even now standing, I couldn't bring myself to look up.

"You need to leave," he continued sternly, not an ounce of feeling or emotion in his smooth voice. He started to walk, my arm still in his grip and I kept staring at the ground.

Finally, we came to a stop. There was a hole in the ground, the bottom hidden by the darkness in it.

"Your heart started beating again," Itachi told me, "you have to..."

"I can't leave Sasuke alone like that," I cut him off sharply. Strangely enough, I didn't want to cry. I just…

I just wanted to live.

I started to lift my leg to fall in the hole but the grip on my arm tightened briefly.

"Can't you just look at me for a second Akane?" Now there was a tint of sadness in his voice. I turned my head to shot him a quick look and clenched my jaw.

This face...this face had been so cold during our last encounter.

I spun around and punched him in the cheek in the blink of an eye. He fell on his ass, his face facing the ground.

"You used the Mangekyou on me," I accused him coldly.

"I did." He...I was just getting angry at him. Not sad, just angry.

"You could have avoided that blow."

"I could have," he admitted quietly, "I deserved it."

"At least we agree on that," I spat bitterly. He got up without a word and our eyes met. "I died a second time, I can't stay here too long before coming back to life, it's my thing now."

"I know." I took a step back, my hill in nothing, and Itachi took a step forward. I could see he wanted to say a lot of things, but I didn't want to hear them.

"If I ever die again, maybe we'll have more time but for now...I have to go."

He nodded and slowly, raised his hand. I raised a brow and froze when two fingers poked my forehead. I blinked in confusion and bit te inside of my cheek when I saw his smile. It was sad, just...sad, and heartbroken.

"I have faith in you," he whispered to me, his hand sliding from my cheek to my chest, "always have."

He pushed me and I fell.

I didn't reach out for him.

For the first time...I was the one to leave him behind.

It didn't feel any better than being left behind.

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

Bye!