A.N. Hey guys! Sorry for the hiatus, but I imagine you all know why. It took awhile to get everything in order with my family and find a place of stability between online classes, all of my finals turning into research-heavy essays, etc. I'm not here for a pity party, but hopefully we can get going again, especially because we are heading into Shippuden soon enough!

Please enjoy and let me know what you think! I cannot stress how all of the comments help me to find motivation in these crazy times of ours.

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NOW:

Tsukiko crouched, glaring at the man with long hair, the sensory type. He had a plain face, expressionless as he watched her twirl his mask around her fingers.

Around her were the bodies of the other Anbu members, each stripped of their masks, which lay in a small pile at her feet. Eight total, the sum of both teams. The only member still conscious was the sensory nin, trapped in the ground with his hands bound by rock. It would take some time to get free.

"I'm not going to ask you any questions," Tsukiko began, trying to see any sign of life in the man's dead eyes. "I don't want some sort of death Jutsu to activate, since I know Danzo is fond of them."

No response.

With a wry smile, Tsukiko shook her head. "You may not believe me, or think I'm telling the truth, but I do still consider us comrades, ya know? I used to be Anbu, and honestly, you guys are very skilled. It makes me glad to know that such strong ninja are protecting the Leaf." If they even were, that is. Danzo's interests and those of the Leaf rarely seemed to line up.

The woman took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts as her gaze slid to the spinning mask on her fingertips. Once, her own mask had been tied to her identity, her pride as a shinobi. She would've been happy to serve, pulled in by Danzo's power. What that did to someone taken as a child, handpicked by the bandaged man, she knew all too well.

"I know you didn't relish this mission, and maybe, somewhere deep in that frozen heart of yours, you might've felt a little sad about attacking a Leaf nin that committed no crime," she continued, looking away from the mask in her hand. "But you're disciplined, and always follow orders to the letter. I understand. So know that I hold nothing against you."

Standing with a soft smile, she pointed at the unconscious Leaf Anbu members. "The same goes for them. I have to restrain them for a bit, but it's nothing you can't get out of eventually. There's a Sound nin tied to a tree about a hundred yards south of here, and he was breathing last I checked. As for the others, I don't care what you do with the bodies."

The man made no motion, no twitching of muscles to show that he even heard her. But the blank eyes fixed on her seemed intelligent enough, so Tsukiko figured he got the message.

"As for these," she said, scooping up the remaining seven masks. "I'm taking them with me. Call it a punishment to have to return to the Leaf without these. If Danzo wants them back, he can come and ask me nicely himself." That, or she'd take great pleasure in throwing them across his desk when she returned, smile sweet like amber as she asked the Hokage permission to take Sasuke from the Village. Embarrassing Danzo and showing that she had lost her trust in the Leaf's ability to protect her brother? Perfect.

Rubbing the spot on her shoulder where she'd been kicked, the only real injury of the day, Tsukiko turned back to the Shrine, one issue left to deal with. Although, if her earlier plans bore fruit, the problem was already taken care of.

A faint rumble of earth was her answer, a barely perceptible signal that Akihiro had taken care of the archaeologists and secured the Shrine. She was free to leave.

'Just a bit longer, Sasuke.'

Dr. Sojirou struggled uselessly against the earth encasing her body, the dirt tightening the more she moved.

Her team had leapt into action when the distant sounds of fighting reached them, the Anbu all leaving suddenly. It had been as good a cue as any to move, heading straight for the area where the white-haired brat had vanished.

Takashi had sounded the alarm, his quick eyes noting a section of earth that looked recently dug up. He was her trap master, so Dr. Sojirou didn't question him when he suspected a bomb or some sort of other invention set to guard the secrets of the forest.

It had been, it turned out, the entrance to a collapsed tunnel of sorts, leading back the way they came. The small group of four had only been able to ascertain that before the ground began moving.

Now, they were trapped.

"Miu! What do we do?!"

"I'm thinking!" She shouted, trying to see her way out of this. None of them had the ability to control chakra, having relied on hired help to get this far.

"We'll have to wait for Orochimaru's men to arrive," the woman growled, green eyes flashing with rage as she craned her neck to meet the eyes of her comrades. "And hope they won't just kill us off."

"So it is you again."

The calm, powerful voice came from the woods ahead of them.

All eyes snapped to the bushes as an old man seemingly emerged from the ground, long white hair and beard nearly brushing the grass as he silently moved to stand in front of them.

The elderly man radiated power, green eyes seemingly glowing as he regarded each of them with a frown. "I have given you all several chances to leave. Surely my traps took enough of your lives?"

"So you're guarding the Amaya Shrine?" Takashi sneered, muscles straining to free himself. "Tell you what, old man...you let us go, and I won't beat you within an inch of your life!"

"Tempting." The man's dry tone did nothing to ease the feeling of danger creeping over Dr. Sojirou.

'His eyes...they're like hers.'

That white-haired brat had eyes with a similar green glow when she was navigating the forest earlier. Through her binoculars, the red-headed researcher had seen them switch from green, to gold, to blue, to the normal black. So now, there was no mistaking it.

"We're sorry!" Her words were rushed, seemingly desperate. "Look, we didn't realize there was an active guard here. Please, let us leave, and we won't bother you again."

They wouldn't have to. If word got out that there was another Amaya at this site, Sojirou could sell off the location itself and make millions. All of the Shinobi Villages would be desperate to take the Gensogan from an elderly ninja. And his presence alone was proof of the Shrine's authenticity.

Akihiro's gaze landed on her. "I wonder about that. I should think that someone whose ambition has taken them this far will say or do what they must to escape a situation."

"I swear!" The woman put a small tremble in her voice, trying to curl and seem more submissive. "Let us go, and you'll never see us again!"

The old man sighed, hands emerging from the long sleeves of his robe even as his eyes darkened. "I might've been persuaded, had I not heard the name 'Orochimaru.'" His icy gaze made the group shiver as he raised his hands.

With a growing sense of panic, Dr. Sojirou realized that his eyes weren't just darkening in the exaggerated sense. The orbs were physically turning black, a void that sucked her in and froze her, unable to look away or think. Sheer terror filled her veins as the man spoke, his voice layered and booming, as if many people were speaking in unison.

"You have threatened my granddaughter, my only family, as well as my home. You seek to destroy my life's work and use it for profit. Most unforgivably, you planned to put vast amounts of knowledge and weaponry into the hands of great evil, such as this Orochimaru. For that, and your continued trespassing upon the land of my clan, your journey in this life ends here."

Sadness came into his expression. "A shame. I do so hate violence. But I will not allow you to lead others here."

Clawing at the stone, Dr. Sojirou opened her mouth and screamed. "Wait—!"

Akihiro's outstretched hands closed with a sense of finality.

The sharpened icicles he'd created shot forward, piercing each of the archaeologists in the back of their neck and killing them instantly. Blood splattered on the ground as their bodies went limp.

Shaking his head, Akihiro closed his eyes, willing them to return to green. "It has been a while since I've had to use that," he mused aloud, directing the earth to swallow the bodies and clear the surface. "May you all rest well and find happiness in your next lives."

He sent vibrations along the forest floor, a signal to Tsukiko that things were cleared up on his end.

"I will never allow everything I built to fall into darkness," the old man vowed, eyes boring into the ground where the intruders vanished. "And I will not allow anyone to torment my granddaughter."

She had been through enough, and was the key to finally bringing peace between the Amaya and the Uchiha. Such a thing had been beyond Akihiro's wildest hopes.

'I must train her with everything I have. She is my will, the only one who can continue to fight for peace in this world under the Amaya name. I refuse to let that die out!'

The young male glared at the letter, dark eyes scanning its contents yet again, searching for anything concrete hidden within the message. Tsukiko's crow had already vanished, its mission complete after finding him.

"Sasuke, I'm coming home in the next few days. I found a way to help you, I'm sure of it! We'll talk more when I get back, but get ready for the training of your life, because we have a lot of work to do if we're going to get rid of that damned thing on your neck. Don't worry, you and I will both come out stronger by the end of this."

Something coiled unpleasantly in his stomach, his Mark throbbing again when it sensed his chakra getting stirred up. As if it knew what the message said, the parasitic jutsu seemed to sit heavily on his shoulder, promising power and mastery of the Sharingan if he gave in.

Time was slipping away from the young Uchiha. He'd counted on weeks to make this decision, a few more spars with Naruto to confirm what he feared; the idiot was stronger than him now. If he'd been hit by that blue attack, he would've been killed, or at the very least, severely wounded. He'd been training with Tsukiko, and as much as he'd improved, Naruto had done it faster with that old man's help. And Orochimaru had killed Lord Third, an impressive example of the power he could receive if he trained under the man.

Of course, he wasn't stupid. Tsukiko had explained in no uncertain terms what the snake-like man wanted him for, but Sasuke couldn't bring himself to be truly worried about it. As long as Itachi was dead by the end of it all, what happened to him was unimportant. As long as Tsukiko wasn't the one who killed him, as long as she wasn't shattered by doing the job herself, then he was content.

Tsukiko wasn't as strong as Itachi. In plain terms, that was the truth. Kakashi was nowhere as strong, even Orochimaru probably wasn't as strong, or he'd have targeted Itachi instead of the weaker brother.

But Sasuke could be. He'd been picked by Itachi to measure his ability against. That in and of itself was an acknowledgement of his potential. Not mother, not father, not Shisui, and not Tsukiko. Sasuke had been the one to be chosen, and he wasn't going to let anyone take that from him.

Crumbling the letter in his hand, Sasuke closed his eyes, breathing deeply. Tsukiko would be better off training herself and that new power rather than focusing on him, and he doubted that she'd be strict enough to really push him, to forge him through blood, sweat, and pain into what he needed to be. It wasn't her fault, but she cared about him too much.

His chest was hurting, eyes stinging with tears that he refused to let fall. What he was planning was wrong, a betrayal of the highest order. Tsukiko would be devastated, and he'd be leaving behind everyone who cared about him, stepping onto a dark path that he'd never be free of. In that moment, he wanted his mother to hold him, wanted Tsukiko to make him laugh and teach him a new jutsu, he wanted his father to smile at him, he wanted Itachi—

Disgust and fear poured over him like ice, the image of the Mangekyo Sharingan appearing in his mind's eye. Even the slight admission that he missed that murderer was enough to activate his own Sharingan, body filled with the adrenaline of a physical enemy.

The pain, the uncertainty, the doubts were gone in that moment. Tsukiko made him soft, made him the scared little boy who'd done nothing but cry as she was nearly killed, as his family was slaughtered. He needed to be strong, a weapon to destroy his enemy, an avenger.

"I'm sorry, Tsukiko," he said aloud, the only message he would leave, spoken in an empty house with no way of reaching her.

It was only a short time later that he'd be confronted by Orochimaru's minions, given yet another demonstration of his powerlessness. After that, there was no turning back for him.

Sasuke Uchiha had become a Rogue Ninja.

Masuko closed her eyes, every part of her body taunt like a wire ready to snap. Her fists closed, jaw clenched so tightly, she could barely speak as she glared pure rage at the woman before her. Teeth bared in a feral showing of aggression, the jounin struggled to keep the red out of her vision.

"What did you say?" The words were barely intelligible, growled with barely-checked malice.

Tsunade's somber expression didn't change, frustration and her own sadness evident. The much older woman sighed, intertwining her fingers and resting her chin on them.

The two were in her office, weeks of backed-up paperwork and Village concerns piled up around her. She had barely slept the last few nights, too few ninja at her disposal to continue going on missions and protect the Leaf at the same time. Which led to the situation before her.

She met the furious gaze of the purple-haired jounin, unfazed by what she saw. If anything, the genuine anger helped soothe any doubts she herself had about this woman. A shinobi trading Villages was all but unheard of, after all. But Masuko was proving to be anything but suspicious.

"I said, Sasuke Uchiha is gone. He left the Leaf of his own free will and the Retrieval Team I sent was defeated." Her words held little emotion, the hallmark of a shinobi. But her eyes said differently.

Masuko took a deep breath, trying to resist the urge to pick the desk up and throw it through a window. Such childish acts would accomplish nothing, save giving her a small release for the guilt stabbing through her.

"And this 'Retrieval Team' you spoke of," she began, forcing herself to speak somewhat respectfully to her Hokage. "It consisted of one chunin and six genin? Including Chiyo and Midori?"

The blond Hokage nodded solemnly. "As you well know, I didn't have any chunin or jounin to spare. We are short-handed as it is, and with Tsukiko gone and you away as well, there was no choice."

Eyes narrowing, Masuko crossed her arms. "What do you mean, 'with me away?' I was sent on a mission by your council! Some guy all wrapped in bandages ordered me to leave on your behalf!"

Tsunade's brow furrowed. "I ordered no such thing. I heard you had left on a mission and assumed that that had been voluntary. You're saying Danzo gave you a mission?"

"Danzo?" Her voice was sharp, a sudden realization striking her.

"The former head of the Anbu Black Ops and the creator of the Foundation, an elite group of talented shinobi." Former, in the official sense, perhaps. But Tsunade was well-aware of the influence the man still had.

Masuko let out a curse, fist itching to hit someone. "That's the man trying to stop Tsukiko! He's had Anbu tailing her, trying to ambush her when she gets to the Amaya Shrine!"

Tsunade's eyes widened, slamming her hands down on her desk as she stood. "What did you say?!"

The younger woman filled her in over the next few minutes, including Tsukiko's suspicion that Danzo had helped Orochimaru and was working to take power in the Leaf.

Moving to look out the window, Tsunade crossed her arms and frowned. "There's no real proof of any of that, but it is certainly suspicious," she admitted. "It deserves investigation, at the very least. Coupled with you being sent away just before Sasuke left, and there is much to consider."

With a long-suffering sigh, the older woman turned, eyes narrowed with determination. "We'll get to the bottom of this. If Danzo took part in Lord Third's death, he will pay dearly for it."

Masuko's sharpened canine glinted. "Give me five minutes alone with the guy first."

"This needs to be handled delicately and internally," Tsunade countered, tone brooking no argument. "In the meantime, I need someone to tell Tsukiko what happened. She deserves to know that her students were injured and her brother is missing."

"I'll go." There was no hesitation in her voice. "She asked me to watch out for Sasuke, and I failed. I need to take responsibility for this."

"Be careful." The Hokage gestured out towards the Village. "As I'm sure you're aware of by now, Tsukiko has never been the best at controlling her emotions. Seeing as her Gensogan is powered by strong desires and feelings, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I was there when her parents died, and I saw the destructive force she was capable of as a small child with no training. Catch her before she gets to the Village and try to keep the damage to a minimum."

Tsunade sat heavily in her chair. "When she calms down, let her know she has my full support for whatever she chooses to do, within reason. We need her here for now, but should she decide to go back to the Shrine, or track Sasuke herself, we will lend aid. Please tell her that the boy is in no immediate danger. Orochimaru has already performed the Body Transfer Jutsu, and won't be able to do it again for about three years."

"Well, that's some good news." Masuko straightened, bowing her head. "I accept this mission, Lady Hokage. I'll bring Tsukiko home."

"Dismissed. And Masuko? Thank you."

The purple-haired jounin found her friend a few hours from the Village, the younger woman appearing in front of her out of the blue. She had likely sensed her, which was why Masuko had sent out pulses of chakra as she traveled, trying to attract attention.

They were on a well-worn path in the forest, a small sort of clearing where merchants had likely camped as they traveled from town to town selling wares.

Tsukiko smiled warmly, cocking her head in confusion. "What are you doing here, Masuko? Coming to greet me?" Her sharp eyes took in the older woman's dirty clothing and worn appearance. "What happened to you? You look like you've been fighting."

Masuko steeled herself, her voice low with shame. "I just got back from a mission. I was sent away after Tsunade arrived to be the Fifth Hokage."

She saw the way the white-haired jounin stiffened, black eyes widening with fear. "You were gone? Why? Did Lady Tsunade send you away? Have you been back to the Village since then?" Her voice showed her trying to keep calm, but sounding shrill by the end of her questions.

"I'm so sorry, Tsukiko." It wasn't her nature to apologize for much, but even Masuko could understand the pain she was about to inflict. Shame sat like a rock in her stomach, corroding her insides. It was her fault. She was the one who'd been tricked.

"I didn't know what this Danzo guy looked like," she began, nearly wincing at the expression that name caused in her friend. "He ordered me out on a mission and I couldn't refuse. Lady Hokage was back, so I thought everything would be alright. But it was all a trap. Sasuke left the Leaf two nights ago, accompanied by a squad of Sound Ninja."

Tsukiko's head was lowered, her face in shadow. At Masuko's final sentence, her entire body stiffened, breath coming out in quick pants. "Sasuke is...gone?"

Masuko felt a shiver run down her spine at the sound of multiple people speaking through Tsukiko's mouth. Looking at her hands, her eyes widened to see them actually shaking. Gritting her teeth, the purple-haired woman continued. "The Hokage sent a retrieval team of Naruto and his friends, but they were unable to bring him back. Sasuke fought Naruto and wounded him pretty badly before leaving. No one on our side died, but there were some close calls. Midori will be in the hospital for a while. Her stitching is all that saved her and Neji Hyuga. Chiyo is relatively unharmed, thanks to help from the Sand Village. But Sasuke is gone."

It was at that moment that Masuko realized that it hadn't been her shaking; it was Tsukiko.

Her whole body was vibrating, the earth underneath her feet rumbling while the wind seemed to sharpen around her, small cuts appearing on Masuko's skin just from being too close.

"Sasuke is...gone?" She repeated, tone identical.

Masuko planted her feet firmly, unwilling to back away from the younger woman. "Yes, Tsukiko. He's gone, and I wasn't there to protect him. It's my fault."

Everything stilled instantly, not a single leaf moving as Tsukiko raised her head. The world was completely silent, frozen by the young woman's expression.

There had been several times in Masuko's life where she'd been sure she was going to die, almost all of them from living in the Mist. When she did get that feeling, however, her body had always been quick to respond.

That was the case yet again.

For a long moment, Masuko was frozen, staring at the void pulling her in. She couldn't even see her friend's face, the pulsing of the darkness that seemed to go on forever obscuring everything. Her body felt like lead, unable to move as sheer terror took hold of her senses.

But years of training reflexes and muscle memory were hard to break. Using Body Flicker, Masuko found herself inside the branches of a tree several meters away.

From this point, she could see that Tsukiko had no real plans to attack her, the all-consuming pain simply lashing out at whatever was closest. The woman didn't move, her eyes black and swirling as she threw her head back and screamed her grief, breaking the silence with devastating wails.

Masuko covered her ears, the sound of a heart shattering too raw and painful for her. Her gaze, however, was fixed on the white-haired woman, unable to look away from the incredible show of power.

Tsukiko was lifted off the ground, the force of the chakra expelled from her feet shattering the earth like glass, forming a crater with her at the center.

As the purple-haired woman watched, she saw those eyes change yet again.

Two red burning pupils appeared in the center of the voids, the only signal before the fire appeared.

White flames shot from her fists, scorching the ground at her sides, while the same exploded from her mouth, a pillar of white shooting dozens of feet into the air.

The air turned thick, Masuko moving to shield herself from the heat. Trees burst into flame from the close proximity to the white fire. And all while Tsukiko screamed, the sound unbroken and unending.

But it did eventually stop after several long minutes, when the young Amaya no longer had the chakra to sustain her outpouring of grief. The fire died first, getting smaller and smaller before the pillars from her fists and mouth were gone.

The scream was nothing more than a hoarse choking noise, blood at the white-haired woman's mouth signaling that she had likely torn her vocal cords. Her head was still tilted back, mouth opened, when her Gensogan vanished. The red pupils died, and the void retreated. There was a split second of consciousness before Tsukiko's normal black eyes clouded over, and she fell to the ground in a senseless heap.

Masuko approached slowly after a few minutes of putting out fires, cautiously traveling over the still steaming ground, the earth scorched where she'd directed the strange white flames.

Carefully lifting the hurt woman, Masuko frowned at the blood in her mouth, her breath a wet gurgle. She needed to hurry before Tsukiko drowned in it.

Without a second thought or moment of contemplation as to the terrifying destructive force in her arms, Masuko took off, her concern for her friend overshadowing any doubts or fear. She herself was burned and cut up from her proximity to the outburst, but these injuries were minor, not even registering in the older woman's mind.

She didn't look back at the destroyed clearing as she raced through the trees, but did allow one thought to cross her mind before devoting herself entirely to saving her bleeding friend.

'I wouldn't want to be Orochimaru or Itachi Uchiha right now.'

The End — See you all in Shippuden!

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A.N. I know it's a little short, but I have a lot of planning to do and I know we all want to get to those good angsty parts anyway! As always, thank you all so much!