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: 17

Shisui: 25

Kakashi: 31

I scratched the side of my nose as I slowly opened my eyes. I was resting my head on Kakashi's shoulder, Sasuke's head on my lap and Kakashi was leaning against the wall. Seihitsu and Pakkun would have woken us up if they had felt anything anyway. I yawned quietly and looked toward the entrance of the cave. The blizzard seemed to have calmed down but just a little, the wind was less strong but the snow kept falling hard.

Sasuke frowned in his sleep and hugged my thighs tighter, burying his face in them. He was doing a good job, but it was exhausting.

I put my hand on my jacket and made a storage seal. I smiled softly at the two pictures in my hands. The picture Naru, Mom and I took in front of the Academy a few months back was in a pretty good shape. The other one was older. Sasuke and Naruto were both nine, grinning at the camera. Itachi and I had not been friends for a long time, but I was still pulling on his cheek to make him smile, which just made him grin awkwardly. He didn't just let me do it freely and I had the same awkward grin on my face. I remember struggling to hold my laugh back.

Shisui didn't though, his arms on my shoulders and Itachi's, grinning widely at the camera, eyes...so much more alive and happy than the last times I saw him.

Itachi though...he packed those two pictures in my things, just like he put a family picture and Team Seven picture in Sasuke's things. I just smiled bigger and blushed, hugging the pictures to my chest.

I really fell bad for that idiot huh…

"What's this?" I looked up. Kakashi was awake, his eye looking at the pictures. I showed him and he furrowed his brows. "You and Itachi look so weird."

"This idiot didn't want to smile, I had to make him." Kakashi turned the picture around and grinned.

Itachi had written we needed to take a new one when we were all back home.

"Anyway," I said, putting the pictures back in the seal, "did you manage to rest a little?"

"Yes...in spite of the position less than comfortable." He shot Sasuke a look. "He must be the only one comfortable." I ran my fingers through his raven locks. "And he's the one in his prime. Why can't I use your lap as a pillow Akane?" I raised a brow at him.

"Honestly, I wouldn't mind Kashi, but I doubt a certain Uchiha would like it if he knew." He shuddered.

He didn't want to attract Itachi's wrath huh.

Seihitsu slowly stood up, his ears moving slightly. Pakkun did too, going to the entrance of the cave. Kakashi went to him as I shook Sasuke awake, who woke up immediately.

"They're moving. Approximately twelve shinobi. They're not fast but they're moving."

"They must have an Earth Style jutsu that allows them to protect themselves." I nodded at Kakashi's deduction and took my chin between two fingers, shooting Seihitsu a look.

"Nothing from our allies Akane," he replied quietly.

"Let's wait a few more minutes to follow their moves before doing anything," Kakashi said, eyeing me knowingly.

I was close to rolling my eyes at him. Both canines kept tracks of them, but when it was obvious they were not stopping, I stood up and pulled my white cloak around me.

"Keep an eye on the weather, once it's safe for you to come out then do," I instructed them, going to the entrance of the cave.

"Do they know for your Hyouton?" I shrugged at Kakashi.

"Maybe, but I'm definitely using it now. The one thing I'm trying to hide from them is the Hiraishin, I don't think they like it too much since Konoha Yellow Flash."

"That's an understatement," Kakashi muttered under his breath. "The moment we notice back-up and when the weather allows it, we're on our way."

"Don't die 'til then," Sasuke added. I nodded at them and left the cave.

The hood of my cloak on my head, I started running, the wind and snow lashing at my face. I was using chakra on my feet to avoid slipping on the ice below the snow. I was wearing the appropriate amount of clothing of course, but we were probably minus fifteen degree celsius, the wind and blizzard making it feel even lower.

If I only ran, I could last two to three hours before going into hypothermia, my chakra naturally lowering my body temperature and adapting it to my surroundings. If I got into a fight...it would depend of how much chakra I'd use.

All of this to say, it was still better not to make it last. Maybe they had ways to counter the cold weather as well.

It took me some time to find them, but I did. There was a dome of earth moving slowly but surely. I raised two fingers in front of me. A dozen of chuunin and jounin I'd say, but more jounin.

I observed them from afar. Lightning beat Earth. I had Chidoris sealed in my gloves, an Amaterasu hidden in the seal on my right palm. I could blow it up but...too big, I could use a Chidori to weaken the earth dome and stuck my nodachi in it, getting rid of the weakest ones.

It seemed like a safer bet.

I went to the dome, slowly, carefully, leaving explosives seals on the ground in spite of the snow reaching my ankles. I silently jumped on it and put my left hand on it, releasing the Chidori.

"Wh…" I heard a muffled voice coming from the inside, probably the jutsu user, but I had my nodachi in it already.

I let my chakra go through it.

"Scatter!" I did as well as the dome crumbled.

There were three bodies, horror frozen on their faces forever. There were still nine to go.

"Careful, she's the Hyouton user! Let's go with plan D…" Who I thought to be the captain of the squad couldn't finish as he walked on one of my explosive seals.

He blew up in red, pieces of his body flying away in the snow. There was a deafening silence as the remaining Iwa-nin stared at the remains of their teammate. There was a scream, a flare of chakra in the air and spikes of earth were thrown at me. I stopped a few with ice and blinked at the smaller yet more pointy one hidden behind a bigger one. I blinked once more and jumped, leaning on the spike to jump toward the shinobi, leaving an explosive seal on the earth weapon. There was a scream in my back when they noticed the explosive seal but I was diving toward the shinobi, my club in my hands. A pillar rose from the ground and stopped me. I looked on my right, then my left. Two shinobi were onto me. I gritted my teeth but managed to put the big hook of my club around the pillar, using it as a leaning point for me to turn my body upside down, my legs now up. I kicked them, but they dodged.

That being said, the blizzard was making my Hyouton ten times faster than usual, so I made ice beneath my feet and left explosive seals on them. I then moved the opposite way and made ice between me and the explosions.

They went back to the ground, alive but wounded as I climbed on top of the stone pillar. I looked down at all of them.

"Hyouton and Fuinjutsu," a kunoichi stated with wide eyes. "No wonder there's a flee on sight regarding her in Kumo!"

I looked down at the kunai going for my stomach. I froze its inside and they barely stuck in my skin. I removed the explosive tags and deactivated them before they could blow up, before removing the kunai as well.

I frowned though. I...I had no idea if it was the weather or my kinjutsu, thank God for Itachi who helped me train my Hyouton in ways I never thought of before, but I...could feel...a lot? Like...my surroundings...I just felt everything.

I looked up. The vapor coming out of my mouth...it was more visible than it should be. It was almost as if the drop in temperature my kinjutsu caused...stayed. It just...stayed and…

Oh. Could it be that…

"No!" I jumped back and exchanged my club for my nodachi as the pillar was brought down. I dug my blade in the ground, ice growing on the shinobi and kunoichi around me. "Let us go!"

"You came here, isn't the greeting to your taste?" I replied, speaking to them for the first time. I removed my nodachi from the ground and put it back in its sheath, sending a cold wind to them. "You wage war on us, settle on an island no one should and now...you want me to let you all go? Now…" I opened my arms to them with a cold smirk. "I want you to stay, isn't that what you're supposed to do too?"

The wind started to fall drastically, like the snow started to slow down. The storm was passed us now.

"Now, why would the Tsuchikage ally himself with Ame and the Akatsuki, huh?" A kunoichi widened her eyes.

"The Akatsuki!? Where that shitty Deidara went after he bombed the village!? That's a lie!" I raised a brow.

"It's not."

"Yes it is!"

"Shut your mouth Kagari!" Damn, no.

I didn't want to know their names, it would make them...people instead of enemies.

"Now the storm's over, they'll…" Shards of ice came out of the ground, aimed at all of them.

"I wonder how long you'll fight hypothermia though."

I stretched out my hand, waiting for a snowflake to fall on it. It didn't melt right away. I looked at it for a while and sent chakra to it. It was as easy as breathing almost, and it turned into...an Hiraishin marker?

Just what I had thought.

I was interrupted in my thoughts by a woman voice.

"Yoton: Quicklime Congealing Technique!" I sniffed when gray quicklime was on the ground. I jumped to avoid it, especially the water that followed.

I made some ice, an explosive seal and it sent me away from all the Iwa-nin. I stood up straight and looked at them freeing their comrades, then the jounin leading them.

Kurotsuchi.

Indeed the Tsuchikage had sent people he trusted, his own granddaughter. She looked at the four dead and gritted her teeth.

The thing was, I didn't want to kill the future Fourth Tsuchikage. Yet, here I was, alone facing her and around thirty other shinobi from Iwa.

...it was getting tricky.

"Don't fight and we'll give you a luxury stay with us!" Kurotsuchi said loudly.

"Yeah, no thanks." She pursed her lips.

"Alright then." She raised her arm and closed her fist.

Then the attacks came like a blur and my body moved on its own. I dodged, threw jutsu back. Some were stopped, others were efficient. I'd freeze myself to avoid dodging while avoiding injuries at the same time. Eventually I sled among them and left an Immobility seal on the ground, paralyzing seven of them. I leaned my feet on one's head, and leaped over the crowd. I was about to use my nodachi when Kurotsuchi threw a fire jutsu at me. I sliced through it with my blade, vapor engulfing me.

It was then I felt at least Kakashi and Sasuke coming, as well as others further behind I couldn't pinpoint. I knew them though, that I was sure.

Suddenly I was kneed in the eye. I grunted and jumped back, a hand on my throbbing right eye. Well, keeping up fighting was useless now, I doubted they'd continue the fight the moment we were on even numbers. I opted to make a few shadow clones and quickly moved aside.

I blinked lazily at the rock coming my way. I bent backward with a smirk, a blue lightning destroying the rock. I breathed out, a knee on the ground, my arm on the other, as Sasuke landed smoothly in front of me, the chidori on his hand slowly dying.

"Don't keep all the fun for yourself Akane," he droned at me. In spite of the boredom he conveyed in his voice, I knew his sharingan was spinning and vibrant in his eyes.

"You don't seem hurt," Kakashi said, on one knee next to me.

"I'm good, except for my eye."

"Is that Kakashi the Copy Ninja?" I heard one of them asking. Kakashi heard it and stood up, lifting his hitai-ate to reveal his sharingan.

There was a long silence where we just stared at the enemy. Then I felt Dai in my back, with Karin, Suigetsu, Naoto...just allies. I stood up and walked next to Dai.

"Retreat!" Kurotsuchi yelled. There were looks exchanged, but eventually, they did.

Unknown to me, this first fight would lead to very painful months.

The ghost village, Rikubetsu, was changed into a war outpost. Sensei had been strict though, we had to change the less things possible. Mist shinobi had done enough damage to this place, the least we could do was let it rest in peace. I agreed with her entirely, so the few buildings we were using were the ones in the best shape for the wounded and anything related to medics.

The encounter with Kurotsuchi was a week ago. Since then, there were fights everyday. Clearly, most of their forces were concentrated here now.

As for me, I stayed at the outpost. What I thought was a breakthrough with my Hyouton got me a good old scolding from Dai about the risks of using the cold recklessly. I went to the Yuki temple and brought back stuff to show him and he wasn't impressed, telling me not to do what I did unless I had a medic around.

What did I do? Well my kinjutsu where I froze my inside, mixed with the snow storm and already low temperature sent me into 'negative mode'. Roughly said, Dai called me a Popsicle in the making. With more details, my kinjutsu made my corporal temperature drop. The weather made it impossible for it to go back up immediately except for my vital organs, which were fine. Because of this, I was...in sync with everything around. My chakra basically connected itself to anything with moisture that didn't have any protection around it. It connected to the snowflakes, but not the shinobi as their chakra was protecting them.

That was why the snowflake turned into an hiraishin marker. Oji-chan mentioned that the few times he saw Fubuki do his 'Explosive Blizzard Breath', he seemed paler and sometimes even shivering.

It was no wonder I never understood how he did it. Unlike what I thought, it wasn't because he was a genius of the Uzumaki clan, although he was.

He was a genius from the Yuki clan, having reached the top of our kekkai genkai.

In the scrolls I had gotten, it was written you needed an extremely precise chakra control to go into negative move, and more often than not big chakra reserves. My Uzumaki lineage was taking care of that.

All of that to say, Oji-chan and Tobirama were impressed because it meant I could go into that mode and just teleport anywhere within a certain range without physical markers.

It was awesome, wasn't it?

Dai had a mixed opinion. The main reason was because when I got back here with them, my hair, lashes and brows had frost on them, my lips starting to go blue. When I removed my gloves, frost fell out of them. I could move just fine, but unknown to me, I had started to dip in the 'dangerously cold' section. The negative mode was great, but one misstep and I was the frozen one.

I also discovered that it was the reason my nodachi existed. It was a safe way to go in the negative mode as it would regulate the temperature around me and my own on its own.

It took me an hour to go back to an average body temperature. Dai couldn't even touch my skin as it would probably cause him frostbites.

I was kept at the outpost for now. Alongside Kakashi and Dai, I was giving out orders. It was stressful, hence why I told Sasuke to make a team with Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu for scooting.

He called the team Taka without any indication from me. Some things were just meant to be after all.

"We need to wait for Taka to come back, but if the ships they saw yesterday indeed brought back-up then we will be outnumbered quickly," Dai stated firmly.

"Akane and Sasuke may be here, but exhaustion gets everybody, especially in war." Kakashi was right.

Even when not fighting, the stress and living condition...there was no way to truly rest. You could be the greatest shinobi of all time, we all had our limits.

"From how the country is and how we got rid of them on the Main Island, then they must be going around the Land of Fire to then get on ships from the Land of Hot Water." With my finger, I traced the itinerary I was talking about. "Meaning they're using the neutral water between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water."

"We should send them in the Land of Lightning's national waters and let the Raikage deal with them," Dai suggested with a faint smile. The dark circles beneath his eyes were getting worst.

He was taking decisions and being the head medic here after all. Not only that, but he was the Godaime Mizukage's brother and I doubted he truly realized what it meant until the war with Iwa and Ame had started.

"From what I know, Konoha and Suna are surrounding Ame right now but the Akatsuki is...annoyingly resistant," Kakashi said quietly, his eye staring harshly at the map between us. "They released poisonous gas, courtesy of Akasuna No Sasori." I widened my eyes.

I was not aware of that.

"It's a good thing Tsunade-sama accepted Sakura as an apprentice, she'll be vital on the battlefield there," Dai mumbled to himself.

"Not only that but…" Kakashi sighed and looked at me. "I didn't want to tell you to avoid worrying you, but Akiko-san was sent on the war front too." I widened my eyes even more, my bottom lip on the verge of shaking.

As if Itachi, Naruto, Sakura and Shisui on the battlefield was not enough...now my mom was…

"Konoha has medical seals we came up with throughout the years, Mom is...she'll be needed there…" I said quietly. I took a deep breath.

I couldn't let that reach me.

"Hey." We looked at the entrance of the tent. Sasuke was there. "Can I?"

"Of course, come in," Dai replied. Sasuke let the cloth falling behind himself, putting a paper tag on the table. I blinked at it, then looked at Sasuke.

"It's a poor job of replicating our basic healing seal Sasuke." He looked mildly offended and crossed his arms on his chest with a frown. "It is...yours, isn't it?"

"It's not." I blinked again and frowned, leaning toward the seal.

Indeed...there were modifications...but Sasuke usually tended to go straight for the purpose of the seal when he'd draw them, not…

Wait a minute.

It was a way too complicated seal for the purpose but...if you looked really at it...it would still work if you modified it without any proper knowledge in fuinjutsu. Any good shinobi knew seals could be altered, but here...it would be useless.

What I thought to be sloppy work was actually...excellent work.

"Where did you find it?"

"We ran into three Iwa-nin, one of them tried to use it but we made them run away before he could."

"Iwa got themselves a good fuinjutsu user I'm afraid." I looked at Dai. "I should go with them or another team to see if they're planting seals around."

"It could be a bait for you," Kakashi countered.

"Or it could be our doom if I don't check. Sasuke's good, don't get me wrong, but he's not being sent out for his fuinjutsu skills right now." They exchanged a look. "Kakashi you can come with me, it would be best actually."

"Alright," Dai conceded. "You're good to go anyway, so alright." I grinned at him but he pointed a scolding finger at me. "But don't overdo it if the situation can be handle without your input idiot, got it? We need your brain here!"

"Sir, yes sir!" I shot Kakashi a look. "So you'll be with me?" He shrugged.

"It would be better that way."

"Get Naoto as well."

I did and made a detection seal on my free glove.

Taka would check the same roads, but they'd change who was taking care of which. We figured it'd be safer to follow Karin as she was the best sensor and could heal us if we ran into problems. So...that's what we did.

In a week, we found around thirty seals between the Iwa outpost and ours for various uses. Detection, traps, simple storage seals for Iwa shinobi to use to get weapons or elements for their jutsu to be easier to use...it was nice work. I would totally exchange about fuinjutsu with whoever was their Seal Master working against us, but I doubted it would be possible. That being said, I could see a few of my own designs in these seals.

When I said my own, I meant my old, old ones back in my genin and chuunin days. As Kiri had been struggling with Iwa back when Yagura abducted me, I had to make seals as the only Uzumaki in Kiri. It wasn't surprising Iwa stole a few, but they...were old and simplistic to me now.

It should be okay.

A month went by. An exhausting, long month went by. November settled in, the war now officially being two month-old. Kakashi turned thirty-one on the way to Kiri, and Naru and Shisui turned seventeen and twenty-six on the battlefield. We had no news from the continent so I could only hope they were all okay and alive. The fights with Iwa were indirect for most of them, we'd rarely meet in person. If anything, we stole their strategy and started leaving seals around as well.

It turned into whose fuinjutsu would be better and overwhelm the other's. Sasuke was mainly helping me to make them and apply them. At some point, Taka stayed back to get some rest, so I went with Naoto, Kakashi and a few other sensors.

At about five hours from the outpost, someone caught up to us. He was panting.

"What?"

"We're under attack!" I blinked and frowned.

"We're moving, now!" Naoto barked at us. We did. "Akane, when you can…"

"I know."

God.

I hope we wouldn't be too late.

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

Bye!