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: 21
Naruto, Sasuke: 15 / 16
Shisui: 24
Kakashi: 29
"What do you think?" I asked Sasuke as I exited the changing room.
"It's clothes, it cover your skin." His eyes stayed a little bit longer on the exposed skin between my short and my thigh-high boots. "Most of it."
"Come on, it's ten centimeters! It's less than before now I wear leg warmers underneath."
"We literally went in snowstorms in missions and you were not even shivering. Now it's summer and we're in the Land of Fire you wear leg warmers?" He sighed and shook his head in despair. "How come Uzumakis are so weird when it comes to clothing? That or bright orange..."
"Yeah? Then what's that big target you used to wear all the time, huh? Or the high collar? Your white shorts?"
"Hn." He looked away and went to a changing room. I went back in mine. My outfit was not that different. The shorts were black and in cotton, lighter than back in Kiri. My kimono top was still burgundy, but the sleeves were both ending after my fingertips, hiding my hands. I still had my mesh tank top underneath, with a mesh piece of fabric that covered my left arm from the shoulder to the tip of my fingers. My other arm was bare.
I changed back to my usual clothes and went to pay.
"Add that," Sasuke said next to me, putting items on the counter. I watched them piling up on top of each other blankly. "Thanks for paying." He left, hands in his pockets.
"It will be fifteen thousand ryō." I gulped quietly and handed the cashier the money. My smile was wavering when I exited the story with the bags. Sasuke was waiting in front of it, a smug smirk on his face.
"You'll pay for that. Literally I hope." His smirk grew larger and I almost threw him his stuff. "Piss off!"
"No need to be in such a bad mood." I glared at him. My wallet was empty.
I had a look at what I bought the next day, when I went down the stairs of the inn. Sasuke was paying for the rooms. His top was a grayish dark blue, the sleeves went to his elbows, their edges and the collar being beige. He was wearing the pair of gloves I bought him, still sealess. Then, there was a gray obi around his waist, all around the stomach area. Keeping the kimono top closed. The mesh armor was still visible though, on the top of his chest and slightly under his sleeves. Then, he had pants the same color than his top, stopping above his ankles, and black sandals.
Heh, it was different from his previous attire in Konoha, but it was definitely more Land of Fire-ish. It was clearly lighter to wear than Kiri attires.
Oh, and he had one big beige pouch tied to his waist down his back. His kunai and shuriken holder was still around his left thigh.
I approved. He would add the Uchiha fan on his back later on and bam! Uchiha Sasuke was back in the Leaf!
"If you're done checking me out, let's go." I followed him, my arms crossed. He had one stripe of his backpack on his shoulder. Mine was strapped across my abdomen because of the club on my back.
"I was going to compliment your attire, now I'm reconsidering it." He scoffed. "Please tell me you're done with Uchiha collars. They're ridiculous."
"I think I am."
"You think I can get you brother to stop wearing them too?" He shouldn't hide his jawline, and I was speaking for the entire lady population here. He probably wanted to hide his weak spot though.
"Give good arguments." I really hated these high collars. Urgh. Bad taste.
You bet my daughter was a fashion addict, I was more into it than I would have ever thought.
"Let's go to that temple," I decided, taking the lead.
"You've been saying that since we left the Land of Eddies. Two weeks ago."
It was mid-August now.
"And now we're going!" The thick foliage the forest of the Land of Fire had to offer soon surrounded us. It was good, it kept the heat of the sun from getting to me too quickly. "Anyway, sum up what we've found in the stuff we pretty much stole."
"Nobody will ask for it anyway," he muttered. "At an unknown moment in time, a woman named Uchiha Saya started to question the way my clan praised the stone tablet. She knew a man called Uzumaki Eiji and asked for his opinion. It seems like there was...there is indeed something, but she passed away before verifying the facts. However, apparently, the Uzumaki clan has a proof the tablet might be...incorrect." I pursed my lips.
"If it's true then...a lot could have been avoided."
"I'm home!" Naruto screamed, almost knocking the door down when he opened it. He was just back from his trip with Jiraya, who was right behind him. However, his aunt wasn't there. Instead, there was a green-haired girl with a dark complexion, staring at him with stupefaction. "What the...what are you doing at my place!?"
"I live here!" He stared back at her with wide eyes. "Who are you!?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo!" Something akin to recognition flashed in his orange eyes, but before she could say anything, they heard a bark. "Why is there a dog..." A big black rottweiler trotted inside the living-room from the backyard. The dog had a long scar on his back. "Hey stop barking!"
"You're really not good with dogs, are you?" Jiraya pointed out, taking his shoes off.
"Ganbaru!" They all turned their eyes to the red-haired woman on the patio. She had dirt on her pants and gloves, her tied hair now a mess. She walked back inside. "Sit. Fū, this is my nephew, Naruto. Naruto, it's Fū, she has been living here for the past few months now to get used to Konoha." Akiko walked up to the teenager. "My God, you grew so much taller." Naruto grinned at her.
"Hehe, I've eaten well like you asked!" He threw his arms around her, his embrace immediately returned.
"Akiko, I'm here too," Jiraya reminded her, pointing himself with his finger.
"Go drink with Tsunade-san," she replied with a sweet smile.
"Yeah, there is a touching reunion happening if you haven't noticed Pervy Sage!" Jiraya twitched.
"I have noticed." His eyes found Fū's and he stepped forward. "So you're the Nanabi jinchuriki then."
"Yeah...you're Jiraya of the Sannin? The real one?" He snickered, taking his chin between his fingers.
"Hehe, it is I indeed! I'm..."
"Hey, jinchuriki?" Naruto interrupted him. He almost tripped on his own two feet. "What?"
"You're the Naruto Sasuke-san always complained about!" A vein popped on his forehead.
"What did that teme...how do you know him?"
"Well, to begin with, Sasuke is not in the village for now. He left not long after you for Kiri." Naruto looked confused. "Akane came with Itachi and Utakata and he managed to convince Tsunade-san to send him over there for a year and a half."
"She reestablished the Honorary Shinobi program?"
"It's still new, but yes. And well, with what happened before, Akane asked his parents if he could stay if he wanted to after the end until you and Jiraya-san came back. They're both traveling for a mission for now, during which they met Fū and sent her here."
"A mission? What kind of mission?"
"Akane-san is warning us jinchuriki about the danger of the Akatsuki! Sasuke's is her apprentice from what I understood."
"So nee-chan is with Sasuke again..." He looked down, his fists clenched by his sides. Sasuke had monopolized her again then...He raised his head when his aunt patted his shoulder.
"You know, she was sad you were already gone when she came. She kept refusing training Sasuke too." It seemed to make him feel better. "Anyway, let's feast tonight!"
"Yeah!" Naruto and Fū shouted.
"Jiraya-san, will you join us?"
"No thanks, as you said, I will enjoy my return to the village by a good drink. Naruto, see you later. Bye!" The door made no sound when it closed behind him.
"Well, I'll get change, invite someone else and buy some groceries. In the meantime, get to know each other, alright? And it goes for Ganbaru too, he has been here for over a year, so be nice Naruto."
"Sure."
Of course, Naruto was more than happy to see Iruka walking through the door a couple of hours later.
"Alright. We agree the whole tablet thing is not here, right?" I asked him once we were on the steps of the temple. He nodded without a word.
"We'll have to go back to that island," he reminded me sternly.
"I know, I know. But not now." The inside was dark, the setting sun outside giving an orange shade to the top of the wall. "Alright, let's..."
"Found it." I spun on my heels. Sasuke had pushed a mask that looked like the Shinigami one. The one I stole a couple of years ago. There was a niche inside. "There's a genjutsu seal next to it to hide it." I frowned at his red eyes.
"Of course Mister-I-see-through-genjutsu-because-I-have-red-eyes." I caught the scroll he threw at me. I sat on the steps in front of the temple. The seal on the scroll was strange. It was not like a regular locking seal, more like…
Oh, it reminded me of the Shinigami door.
I focused on my left arm, purple energy quickly forming the Claw around it. Sasuke stepped back right away.
My finger poked the seal, which disappeared immediately. The Claw vanished right after.
"What have you hidden Umiko...Ha!" I put my finger on a sentence. "Found it. It says: 'Only the most extraordinary, powerful souls can be 'awakened' when the Claw is attained. Once the Claw reached the seal, the souls can be summoned, with a body as a vassal. As long as the Yurei is standing, so are the souls. However, if one soul is powerful enough, it is possible for them to 'possess' the Yurei, like the jinchurikis in a way. In that case, the Yurei is forced in the soul's place in the mind.' So that's what happened with the Raikage!"
"So the Fourth just possessed you for a few seconds?"
"He must have sensed the danger before me and knew I would be killed on the spot."
"He is the Fourth Hokage after all," Sasuke muttered, rubbing his neck.
"You're okay?"
"Yeah, I just feel...I'm probably just tired." I looked at the sky. The night would start to fall soon.
"Let's set up camp." I went to pick up wood, leaving Sasuke setting up the rest. When I got back, I was taken back by the dark circles under his eyes. I put the wood between the stones he gathered. "Light the fire and then lay back. You look awful." He did. I stared blankly at his shaking hands.
"I must have caught a cold," he mumbled, leaning back on a tree.
It was fucking August.
He barely ate and fell asleep when he closed his eyes for more than a second. I checked his temperature, but nothing.
Weird.
As I was on watch, and would most probably not sleep at all, I picked up Jiraya-san's book. The first one, not the perverted ones. Careful of the fire, I threw twigs here and then to keep it going, my eyes glued to the pages.
I raised my head abruptly when I heard a noise, like someone moving in a bush. There was nothing though.
I went back to reading.
Until another noise happened. I made a shadow clone and sent her. Damn, I hope it wasn't any Akatsuki members. With Sasuke in that state, there was no way I would protect him and defeat them.
I covered my ears, my book falling on the ground, when a piercing scream resonated behind me, in the temple. It was like a woman was being slaughtered in there!
"Make that stop!" Tobirama yelled in my head, making it even worse.
My clone burst into view and I ran to the temple. I opened the door wide, but nothing.
There was nothing.
But...I heard…
What?
I jumped when I had a flash of my clone, and ran back to Sasuke. I froze in my steps and grasped my left arm. It was warming up against my will.
It was probably the figure on all four above Sasuke. All clad in white, thick black hair fell on both side of the head, hiding the face. However, the little skin I could see on the hands and feet was not reassuring.
It was too skinny to be healthy. Too gray to be lively.
They turned their face to me and I fought against stepping back.
They didn't have eyes, just two holes. No nose either.
Great.
A fucking ghost.
They turned their head back to Sasuke. A bony finger grazed Sasuke's chest up to the carotid. Sasuke was breathing heavily, sweating a lot.
I had to do something, and now.
Alright, ghosts...Ghosts were wandering souls! Souls not resting yet! I could get souls!
I never felt more comfortable at the idea of using the Claw, now that the cold power was running my veins and surrounding my arm.
They growled at me and I made a step forward. I lunched at them, faster than them, and dived the Claw in them. They screeched and disappeared.
I shivered, disgust spreading in my whole body. Yikes, it was a bad soul.
I widened my eyes when another appeared in the bushes, different in appearance but similar in feelings. From the look of it, I would run out of strength before I got them all.
I dropped on one knee, clutching my left arm hard. It was painful now.
"Sasuke!" I hissed through clenched teeth. "Sasuke wake up, I'm begging you!" We were surrounded. I grabbed a stone and threw it at one of them. It flew right through them.
Right, regular attacks really didn't have any impact then.
With difficulties, I got up. I stumbled for a second and destroyed the closest ghost to Sasuke. I put my feet on each side of his body and kept getting rid of the ghosts, demons, whatever.
"Argh!" I croaked when the pain became unbearable. It was in the whole area covered by the Claw. My arm, my left side, my…
Huh?
"Free!" a man yelled. There was a strange feeling in my left arm, a powerful energy going from my seal to the tip of my fingers in the blink of an eye. A blue flame was expelled from my finger and a man appeared next to me.
I gaped.
Next to me was standing Senju Hashirama. He was see-through and completely a pale, ghostly blue, but it was him.
"Go Akane!" He knew my name already? "I'll take care of them, get the boy in the temple!" He ran to the ghosts and actually punched one of them.
So he could touch them.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, slipped Sasuke's arm on my shoulders and ran as fast as I could to the temple. It was not far, but Sasuke was not light.
I shut the door behind me and dropped Sasuke against the wall. Once I was in front of the niche, I pulled a flashlight from my bag. The seal was...high-ranked, sure, but normal on first sight. I put the light between my teeth and executed a few hand seals, putting my right hand on the seal. I pulled a blank paper tag from one of my pouches and pressed it against the wall, before putting my right hand on it.
Now I had the entire story of the seal unfolding backward on the paper. Sometimes, you had to dissect a seal to see its true purpose, its real extent.
Sasuke moaned in pain on the floor.
"There," oji-chan told me. I froze the process.
"I saw it too, you said it faster." I squinted and moved my face closer. What was that?
"It's what Umiko liked to call 'Malediction Seal'. A regular seal in appearance but the one who breaks it will be trapped," Tobirama added. It was twisted, but she was one of my ancestor, somewhere, so nothing surprising.
Now I knew that, I recognized some things. Yureis were not touched but others would, to keep the secret...a target? God, there was a target indication and…
Akuma?
If it was a target, Sasuke had to have it somewhere on him.
"His neck!" I yelled and ran to him. I turned him face against the floor and brushed hair from his neck. It was damp by sweat.
But here it was. A target seal.
Umiko, you genius bitch.
Much like with the God Tree, I used the Claw to remove the seal, careful not to take Sasuke's soul by accident.
I crushed the seal and immediately, the sounds stopped outside. My arm stopped hurting.
"They're gone?" I wondered out loud.
"Yes they are!" I yelped at Hashirama's face suddenly in front of me. He burst into laughter. "Sorry, sorry Mito's descendant, I'll go back inside." He went back to being a blue flame, very similar to a wisp, and went back in the Claw. The latter disappeared after and I sat on my bottom, drained from any energy.
I probably should get our stuff. The fire was still going, wild animals could get there.
I made a shadow clone.
"I hate myself," she hissed, shambling outside. I waited for her to come back and vanish before falling back and sleep.
When Sasuke woke up the next morning, rubbing his neck with a grimace, I was rummaging in the book of entities I had. I briefed him quickly before stopping on a particular page.
"Found them! 'Akuma. An akuma is the soul of a deceased who could not find rest. It wanders aimlessly in hope to find a human to feed on them in order to restore their souls.' Well, at least now we know what they wanted from you."
"I almost ended up in a meal for some demons," he grouched, his eyes glued to the page.
"You didn't know there was a seal between the lines of the seal you broke. I didn't know either until I went through its historic. Umiko was a...very smart."
"I didn't even see it coming."
"Well, we can layer genjutsu, interlink them with one another, someone with a level good enough in fuinjutsu can do the same. Although, she definitely spent a lot of time on this, to make sure the person taking it would not survive the akumas. That's sick, genius but still pretty twisted." He got up and sprinted outside. "Sasuke?" I heard him throw up. Having your soul almost eaten probably left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. "You need something?" I yelled to him.
He walked back in and took some of his stuff without a word, his hand pressed against his mouth.
I closed the book. I wondered if being so much in my presence, he wasn't starting to have a bad reaction to the Shinigami's…energy coming from me. With the Curse Mark, who knew what it could do to him.
"Hey Hashirama, I know you can hear me, answer! How long have you been awake?"
"Since you went to Uzushio. It's a tragedy what happened there. The Fourth updated me."
"And none of the other two told me!?"
"You were busy you know," oji-chan explained weakly. I rolled my eyes. "And before you ask, you really need a medium to summon us. The Shodai was a special case, and it would just be a waste of energy for you."
"Dunno, it could be funny pranks for Halloween." Tobirama sighing was actually totally what I was expecting.
"You're going to a doctor by the way," I said to Sasuke when he walked back in. He stopped dead in his tracks.
"I'm fine."
"With what happened I'm not taking any chances." I pointed my finger at him when he opened his mouth. "I've raised two Uchihas, don't talk back to me."
And he didn't.
"And done. Now the seal will filter the village water without a problem. If there were to be one, contact Konoha."
"Thank you Miss," the chief of the village thanked me with a bow. I crossed my hands in front of me with a polite smile on my lips.
"It's nothing, your doctor helped my friend." Sasuke grunted behind me. "Goodbye."
"Have a nice trip." And we were back on the road.
"I couldn't train," Sasuke finally hissed, making a clone.
"Not for long, calm down." We were not far from the village and had stopped for some training when a toad appeared. I frowned. "You're the toad who told me Sasuke defected."
"Yes. Jiraya-sama asked me to tell you the Kazekage has been taken by the Akatsuki. Team Kakashi had been dispatched already."
"Thank you." He left and I grabbed my stuff, like Sasuke. "We're south-east from Konoha, so it might take longer for us, maybe three days and a half or four to get there. Kakashi's team will go to Suna first and then most likely after Gaara, with a lead."
"Let's head to Suna." I nodded and we took off.
Alright.
The second act had officially started. Hopefully, we wouldn't reach the third act: the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought of this chapter! I've been absent, I know, but I worked all summer and needed a break from writing and posting. Thanks to thor94 for the review, although no, no God like Naruto. I still have to think about what he'll be like as I've already worked a lot on Sasuke, but I have some ideas.
Bye!