Hello! I hope you'll like this chapter!

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: 22

Naruto, Sasuke: 16

Shisui: 25

Kakashi: 30

"We need to talk." Itachi froze, his hand an inch from the fridge. I was sitting on the couch. "Please take a sit." He did. He had a wary look on his face, but he did.

"Did something happen?"

"Yes. We've been together for a month, right?" He nodded. "Meaning, it's July now. In Konoha."

"Yes?" I pointed my finger at him.

"You're too hot for me." He blinked and blushed a little. "The double meaning was intended, but you actually are too hot for me to handle at night."

"Akane…" he whispered, his hand reaching for my arm. I raised my hand.

"No touching 'tachi!" He furrowed his brows, clearly pouting. "We need to cut down the cuddling time."

"All of this just for that?"

"Hey, I'm not the one giving you a heat stroke every night." He rolled his eyes. "I'm serious, I get hot quickly, and the weather in Konoha in the summer is too much, especially since I've been using my Ice Release often. I love you, and I love cuddling with you, but let's keep that for after sex when we're in bed."

"So when we just sleep I can't touch you?"

"You can't keep me against you like a teddy bear. I have nothing against an arm on my waist or something, and it would be good." He shrugged.

"Fine." I narrowed my eyes.

"You sure?"

"I can spend one night in bed without touching you," he said with a pointed look. "It's nothing."

"You hug me in your sleep," I reminded him with a brow raised.

"Then push me away."

"You sure?"

"Yes," he said with a sigh. "I'm not a kid."

"You don't have to be a kid to like cuddles." I pecked him on the lips.

"You're making too big of a deal out of this."

"I was hoping to get more reactions out of you," I admitted against his lips. He shook his head and went back in the kitchen.

I told Kakashi about Obito. I ended up spending the night at his place with empty bottles of alcohol, mainly drunk by him. I mainly stayed to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid until he sobered up. Of course, Itachi was not what I would call happy about me spending the night at another man's place, but one look at the trash bag in my hand when he was at the door totally erased his anger.

Well, Itachi's anger had three main stages. The first one was in his body language. Sure, he was a great shinobi and could hide his feelings, but there was tension in his hands, as if he was keeping himself from clenching his fist. The face would remain blank for mostly anyone, but if you knew him enough you could see the anger in his eyes.

Then, stage two was visible. He'd give you the Uchiha glare with a scowl and the tone of his voice would be icy, but he wouldn't put blatant emotions in his voice.

Then, stage three. He'd say whatever he felt about the situation in a cold voice, throwing bitterness here and there if it was to point out flaws in something or someone. The eyes would burn in fury though.

He also had the 'worried-angry' mode that I had seen in Kiri. Overall, he wouldn't just raise his voice and scream at you. He was more of a 'hit where it hurts' kind of guy. It was the main reason I was so glad he didn't get angry often. Upset, annoyed maybe, but not seriously angry.

If anything, you would see an angry Shisui or Sasuke way more quickly than an angry Itachi, but I was glad about that. I mean, Uchihas could be very...merciless? Itachi wasn't like most Uchihas, he was kind and a pacifist but...I didn't want to know what he would do if pushed to the extreme.

"You're staring," he told me without shooting me a look.

"Be ugly and maybe I'll stop." I smiled, satisfied, when he blushed faintly at the compliment.

He blushed more easily than I thought he would too. I knew he could get embarrassed easily if he felt his personal feelings were out in the open but...complimenting him on his looks or anything really would very often get to him.

I looked outside. The rain kept pouring down, storm clouds hovering above the village.

"What a depressing weather." Itachi looked outside. "I'm sure Sasuke is training his Raiton, probably with Kakashi."

"It wouldn't surprise me," he agreed. He came back with two cups of kakigori, shaved ice. His had matcha syrup in it, mine lemon.

"Thank you," I said, accepting my treat. I slouched on him once he was sitting and put a movie on.

We were both on a break today, it was raining outside, there wasn't much to do. The movie was a love story during the Warring States Period, between a woman from a clan that had a man from a rival clan as prisoner. They fell in love.

"Is that good with matcha?" I asked him, eyeing his ice. He put the spoon in my mouth, his eyes glued to the TV. "Better than I expected." I offered him my spoon. He accepted.

"Sour."

"I love sour."

An hour into the movie, where the girl went down the cells to see the man and it was getting steamy, because of course she'd get down there to whine about how her clan was doing bad things and the guy comforting her would end up fucking her but they would not come up with an escape plan or something, the bell rang.

"Oh come on!" I complained.

"You've read these books too much." I rolled my eyes and went to the door. It was Naruto. I put my spoon in my mouth.

"What's bringing you here Naru?"

"We're summoned for a mission!" He grinned. "Together!"

"Got it." Naru shut the door behind him when I went to the kitchen. I put my ice in the freezer for later.

"Good afternoon Itachi-nii!" Itachi smiled at Naru.

"Mission?" Naru nodded.

"Do not finish that movie without me," I warned him before leaving.

Yamato, Sai and Sakura were also there.

Lightning stroke behind Tsunade-san.

"Yamato, you're going to the Land of Wind with Naruto, Sakura and Sai." Sakura and Sai were watching Naru playing with a chakra blade. He was like a kid when he succeeded in activating it. "You're heading for the desert and ruins of Rōran." I almost sighed.

The desert?

Did someone hate me up there?

"You will capture the nukenin Mukade for Suna. This man is targeting the Source of the Ryūmyaku, deep underneath Rōran. It is a huge source of energy sealed by the Fourth a long time ago." She looked at me. "Which is why you are sent on this mission as a Seal Master Akane." I nodded.

I'd ask oji-chan to tell me more. From the look in her eyes, she was expecting that as well.

"Your mission is to protect this seal above anything else. There is a possibility this might be one of the four old Uzumaki weapons like the Eien Hansen was, so be careful." We all nodded. "You're dismissed. You're leaving tomorrow morning." She handed Yamato a scroll. "A map of the area."

We left her office.

"Nee-chan."

"Hum?"

"You're gonna ask Dad?" Naru asked me in a whisper.

He was pretty cool with knowing his dad was sealed inside of me and didn't really ask to see him or anything. Also, Sakura knew too.

Actually the whole Team Seven knew and had to swear to Sasuke and Naru to keep it to themselves.

Honestly, by now I wasn't even annoyed by people knowing without me telling me, I was numb to it.

"Yeah." I opened my umbrella once outside. "I'll see you tomorrow, don't go to bed too late." He rolled his eyes, his hands crossed behind his head.

"I know." I chuckled and went home. I put my umbrella away, removed my shoes, got my ice back and went back in the couch.

Itachi had not moved.

"Mission tomorrow, Land of Wind," I told him with a sigh. "Desert."

"It's gonna be okay." He ran his hand through my hair. "Don't you want to get prepared?"

"After the movie. I want to know the end."

"Am I allowed to cuddle you tonight?" he asked innocently.

"Yeah. Let's add before and after missions to the list." A small smile appeared on his face.

When the movie ended, I sat up.

"So he played her to leave and left her to die?" Itachi nodded next to me. "I didn't see that one coming."

"At least it's realistic."

"What a great world we live in." I stood up and stretched out. "I'm borrowing the table." A few minutes later, it was covered by scrolls, brushes, ink, weapons and books.

I wrote down what oji-chan was telling me, frowning when he admitted a few bits were blurry and he couldn't remember. It was strange, he wasn't one to forget details period.

Then I dived in the books, searching for any scrap of information possible. Okuni-san was the Uzukage and when Uzushio got destroyed...were they still usable or not?

"Oh bingo," I whispered to myself, leaning toward my page. The Source of the Ryūmyaku was a huge source of ancient energy Tsunade-san said.

More precisely, a long, long time ago, way before Konoha was even created, a small portion of Uzumakis went to the Land of Wind on that Tensui's order to harvest natural energy. They used seals to do that and make it usable for humans so it ended up being modified in a way. It still would give you a huge amount of power if you managed to use it.

The kingdom of Rōran was built above that source of power and said power ended up feeding the kingdom. The royal family are very distant relatives of the Uzumaki clan that apparently learned how to use that power, and that power recognized the heir of royal blood.

I closed the book and looked at what it was. The Uzumaki clan through time. I had broken the seal without even thinking twice about it.

"You're messy." I raised my head to Itachi, who sported an amused smile at the corner of his lips. I blinked at him when I noticed he was sealing rations and medical supplies.

"You don't have to help me." He shook his head.

"I don't have much to do anyway." My gaze softened and I shot the floor next to me a look.

I needed to stop putting what I already went through on the floor.

I raised a curious brow when he frowned at a seal.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just I never really looked at your work closely."

"You had my work on you for a couple of years," I reminded him.

"I couldn't really look at it without a mirror though." He took an explosive seal. "It seems more complicated than the ones you buy." I scoffed.

"Obviously, I'm not writing them myself only for them to be on the same level as those generic ones you buy." He took a senbon with a small explosive seal on it. "Different levels of explosion, different uses." He put it down and looked at me. "Something else?"

"How hard is it to be a Seal Master?" I blinked. "I know you had an advantage, but people made a big deal about you becoming one at thirteen." I cleared my throat and leaned back in my chair, folding my arms over my chest.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" He shook his head.

"Of course not, it's just...Sasuke's been interested in Fuinjutsu since you came in Konoha and then he asked you to train him, it's been nine years but he's nowhere near your level, is he?"

"He's far from it. I mean...in a way, Fuinjutsu and medical ninjutsu are very similar. It's just that medical ninjutsu requires very precise knowledge you have to know because one mistake can kill someone. Fuinjutsu is more...creative. The chakra control required is pretty much the same, but once you know the basics you can use different methods to reach the same result. It's just there are lots of rules and basics to know. I mean, we're supposed to be able to decipher a seal quickly, but we all have our preferences so at some point you just make guesses and hope to be ri…" I bit my tongue. "Sorry, I can get like that sometimes." He gazed at me softly.

"That's okay."

"The main thing though is that you need to be able to use seals in fights to be a Seal Master. It's the most difficult thing because the chakra control required is hard to obtain. And we're usually specialized."

"Like?"

"Medical field or stuff like that. My first specialization was chakra-related seal, chakra network and more precisely in the eye area. I had to make medical seals in Kiri when I was younger, so I know quite a lot about those and since I got here I developed space-time seals thanks to the Hiraishin and I think I need to stop and keep this talk for another time otherwise we'll still be here by tomorrow."

"I noticed," he chuckled and I rolled his eyes.

"But Sasuke is good for someone who's not an Uzumaki. He has a great teacher, of course, who herself had a great teacher. I doubt he'll ever be a Seal Master, but if he's knowledgeable enough it should be good. Reading fuin is the most complicated for people who're not Uzumakis, and don't get me started on old fuin."

I made a few more hiraishin markers in case. Everything regarding the hiraishin was kind of put on hold. I couldn't transfer the marker from the kunai to a surface. I could use the hiraishin for anything or anyone with a marker on it, like I did with Sasuke or Naru and his clones. In a way, it was a derivative of what I used against Isobu and Yagura in Kiri.

I went to my room and grabbed my nodachi.

"Should I name her?"

"'Her'?"

"It's a beauty, it's a her."

"It's complicated to name a weapon without really knowing what it does."

"True, but with Sasuke we noticed that it emanates cold just by me touching it." I frowned, looking at it. "Thinking about it, it must mean it feeds on my chakra without even asking."

"Are you sure you want to take it on your mission?" he asked me with a frown.

"Sure, I mean, there's nothing like life-threatening situations to make you master something new, right?" He didn't look convinced.

Me almost dying on a mission he was a part of...he wasn't over it yet. It was not surprising.

I sealed my sword and walked up to him, who was now standing. I hugged him around the waist.

"I don't think there will be water nearby in the desert," I whispered to him. He refused to look at me.

"Hn."

"I'll come back." He looked at me from the corner of his eyes.

"You better." I chuckled and leaned my cheek against his shoulder.

"I have reasons for wanting to come back and not die." He hugged me back. "What was it you said? An anchor?"

"Hn."

"I'm not forgetting your confession."

"I'd call that scolding."

"A passive aggressive romantic scolding?"

Breath in.

Breath out.

Breath in.

Breath out.

"Suiton: Tearing Torrent!" Yamato said, water leaving his hand to come at me.

I unsheathed my nodachi and cut through the water, freezing it all the way to the source. Yamato jumped back to avoid being frozen as well. I looked at the sword and breathed out.

I could feel it had used my chakra, but it was not that much. I was careful to keep some of my attention on that, but I might put a seal on the sword to help me.

It almost slipped from my hand once I finished my blow because of the weight.

"Your club is heavy too nee-chan."

"I know, but I have a better grip on my club. Here I only have my hands on the handle, which means that most of the weight is in front of me."

I was not going to train with Kakashi. I didn't want to climb a cliff with an arm tied in my back.

"The blade automatically uses your chakra with the Ice Release, it can be useful," Yamato commented. He then knelt on ground in front of me, touching the grass.

It was covered in frost.

"And it seems anything with some moisture around the nodachi is impacted." I put my nodachi away.

That could...totally change the course of battle. I mean, it required quite a lot of chakra to lower the temperature around me. But here...the temperature would drop because my sword would have frozen the moisture around.

Huh.

We entered the Land of Wind after two days, but we had to go deep in the desert, all the way behind Suna. I was complaining to Itachi about the warmth of Konoha, now I was in a desert. Was it karma?

We stopped at a Sand outpost when the night was starting to fall. Yamato went to ask for a few directions and Sakura stuffed her nose in her cloak.

"It's freezing now!" she complained with a frown. I blinked and grinned at the night sky.

"It's perfect," I whispered happily to myself, Sakura and Naruto shooting me a quick glare because I wasn't cold. Sai just drew in his notebook.

Yamato came back a few minutes later.

"Tomorrow we'll need to walk a few hours up north and we should reach Rōran. However, from what I was told, some puppets were seen around, apparently guarding the place."

"Puppets are nothing," Naru said, almost in a haughty tone. "We can destroy them in a second!"

"Actually, cutting the chakra threads used to control them would be more useful, that way it would show the puppeteer that we have a way to counter their techniques, dickless." Naruto jumped on his feet, ready to deal with Sai, but I grabbed his cloak.

"He's right you know." Naru shot me a betrayed look. "Not about the last part, but the strategy. We have chakra blades, might as well use them." Naru sat back down, annoyed.

Guess who, the next day, dived head first into action, destroying puppets after puppets without using his chakra blade huh? My cousin, of course. I watched him from afar, standing next to Yamato on the ruin while he was sitting on it. Sakura and Sai...we were all watching really.

"Should we help?" Sai wondered out loud. I looked behind myself.

The puppets we had destroyed were of no use anymore.

Sakura tightened one of her low pigtails.

"I volunteer."

"Sai, send a beast so that Sakura can use it to come back here with Naruto once she has reached him," Yamato ordered Sai, who nodded. "Sakura, go." She jumped.

We watched. Sai sent a beast once she touched the ground, destroying it. There was an explosion, smoke, and she came out of it, riding an ink tiger, Naruto in the mouth of said tiger. It spat him out once in front of us.

"You weren't careful enough. Last night we said that when facing puppets, cutting the chakra threads was the way to go," Sai told him bluntly.

"You need to keep an eye on the puppeteer," Sakura added, her hands on her hips.

"Naruto, why didn't you use your chakra blade?" Yamato asked him, jumping between Sakura and Sai.

"Heh?" I sighed.

"Naru, we told you last night."

"Do not make me repeat myself," Sakura said, cracking her knuckles.

"I know, I know, it slipped out of my mind!" He jumped on his feet. "Okay, let's go!" We all sighed.

"Akane, did you keep track of Mukade?" Yamato-senpai asked me.

"Yeah, he's below our feet, he must have used the hole that explosion made." It was my turn to jump to join them. I slapped Naru on the back of his head. "If he wants the Source of the Ryūmyaku, he has to go to Rōran and it is now buried." We ran to the hole.

"Sai, make a bird so we can get down." Sai obeyed and we jumped on it. I looked around as we went down.

There had been a fight here. Something big.

I touched the wall when we were on the ground. I inspected it closely, frowning at the seal half erased on it. It was familiar.

"Oh."

"Remembered something?" I thought, running along the rest of the group.

"You will be on your own for a while."

"Wh…"

"Here!" Naru yelled when we reached a huge, circular room. There was nothing but void in front of us, except for a bridge leading to...a seal?

"This if the seal made by the Fourth long ago," Yamato stated.

"He's here," I told them as Mukade walked to the seal. What was he planning?

"You're slightly too late. I will use this power to feed my art and will soon rule over the Five Nations!"

"Don't talk too fast!" Yamato replied. "It was the Fourth Hokage himself who sealed the Source of the Ryūmyaku, you won't be able to break the seal on your own."

"I am not planning on breaking it." I frowned.

The hell?

"If I can't break it then I'll absorb it!" He made a few hand seals and put his hands on the seal. "On mayura guiranti sowaka!" Purple light surrounded him.

"Shit!" Naru and I said at the same time, running toward Mukade. He started to pull the kunai out of the floor. Yamato was running behind us but I feared none of us would be able to…

"Stop!" Naru yelled.

"Crazy man," I muttered under my breath.

The light became blinding, turning into raw energy and started to destroy the very bridge we were on. I grabbed Naru's sleeve but he was already being attracted to the energy. My feet left the floor.

"Captain Yamato!" Wood was wrapped around me and Naru but we were pulled in the energy.

I saw Yamato being absorbed as well before everything turned black.

I woke up to a lullaby sang by a girl. I opened my eyes slowly, noticing I still had Naru's sleeve firmly in my grasp. He was next to me, waking up as well. I let go of him and put a hand on my head. It was painful.

I looked around. We were no longer at the Source of the Ryūmyaku but somewhere else. There was even sunlight? I looked up. Yeah, five openings, the sun was shining on us.

"Hey, where are we?" Naru asked the girl, who ran away.

"Yeah, where are we?" Nothing. I frowned and stood up too. "Hey, not funny."

Yet nothing. It was...empty. Even with the connection cut off, I could feel they were there but now there was...nothing.

"Nee-chan!" I looked at Naru.

"You were attacked?" He nodded and started to go up the wall. I did the same and we were out.

I widened my eyes at the sight. High towers were in front of us.

"Where are w…"

"The same place."

"Heh? It's obviously not!"

"No, it's the same place." I patted my stomach. "I can't feel anyone. I think we're in the past, before the Source of the Ryūmyaku was sealed, so roughly twenty years back."

"Wai...you sure?" I removed my Kiri armband and put it away, leaving my Konoha hitai-ate only around my neck. "What are you doing?"

"If I'm right, I'd rather not risk anything by showing any Kiri affiliation." Naru deadpanned and showed my teeth. "Missions."

"But how would it be possible?"

"I don't know, I've never seen anyone absorbing a seal either so…" I showed the city in front of us. "Let's go." He nodded.

Nothing was ever easy, was it?

Oji-chan did tell me I'd be alone, so maybe he remembered something?

Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought of this chapter! Thanks to Amaterasu53 and Masaya Daiji for the reviews!

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