When she had watched the show Naruto as Samantha, Akane had judged Tsunade Senju for being the best medic in the world and abandoning her village. She had understood the woman's back story and how grief had clouded her, but as a teenager with a mother dying from cancer-Samantha would have given anything to have the ninja equivalent to a magic cure.
She'd even scoffed at the idea that a woman who had been a blooded warrior since childhood had suddenly developed an aversion to blood. Samantha simply hadn't understood.
Akane did.
After her mothers loss and reaching far past her breaking point-Akane could look back at those naive teenage thoughts and chuckle bitterly to herself.
Akane, who had seen blood too early in this world-true child or not. Akane who had shouldered feeding and clothing those the clan could not afford to help. Akane-trying desperately to survive every battlefield and make it back home. Akane, who was doing her best to stop her world from becoming the war infested one from Samantha's memories. All that pressure for so long and the sudden absence of her mothers support, without her anchor-it had become too much.
Too much loss and grief on top of too much responsibility. The nagging thought that she could do so much and so she had to. For the future, for her family, for her clan, and now-for Konoha. The constant dread and fear that in her fervor to make the world better she would only make it worse.
Akane couldn't carry that load.
She couldn't afford another mental breakdown. She couldn't make the same mistake she'd made with her mother and make Kotaro the corner stone that kept her world afloat. Instead she pictured everyone she loved-everyday, the moment she thought herself awake and before she allowed herself some blessed time unconscious, Akane pictured every one she loved. Her family, her friends, her village-and let them ground her. Anchor her to a world that would only continue to break her.
All she could do was try.
So that was what she did.
In the wake of her mothers death, Akane had thrown herself into working to numb some of the pain. It had gone about as well as it had when Samantha had tried it as a teenager desperate to avoid foster care. Which was to say it only worked when she was too busy to think.
Something that wasn't terribly difficult these days with war on the horizon and beginning to get clans from Lightning country immigrating to Konoha.
Despite finally having the Hyuuga, Aburame and even the Hatake in the process of integrating with the village, Akane wasn't happy about the whispers about the Village hidden in the clouds and that the enmity the clans held with the larger alliance that was the reason for their relocation.
Or what having the Hyuuga around was doing for her time table. Akane had no idea how Konoha had come together first go around-but the Hyuuga insistence to deal primarily with her clan out of some snobbish doujutsu supremacy was terribly irritating. Akane had bribed Kana into attending all of those meetings because sometimes you had to be petty just to get through the day.
Fortunately Akane had learned that particular lesson with Tobirama early on in the formation of the village. At first Akane had jumped on his willingness to work together-only to realize that he saw it as a way to monitor her and the rest of her clan. If they were working where Tobirama could see them-then the Senju thought he would see some trick or betrayal coming. His strategy had pretty much been to give them just enough rope to hang themselves.
Akane could admit she'd wasted some time being hurt about that. Tobirama had been the person she'd seen working the hardest to make the village come together. He was at every meeting, reviewing team placements, and alliance contracts with her until time lost all meaning and there was only the work before them. It wasn't to say that Hashirama and Madara didn't pull their own weight to make the village happen-it was simply that she and Tobirama were better at the actual logistics. Or well-Tobirama was better at logistics and Akane was good at making people do what she wanted.
They were a fantastic team, and it stung to realize that he gave her so many sensitive projects with the full expectation that she was waiting for just the right moment to screw him, and thus Konoha, over.
Akane had considered going the passive aggressive route-but they were both already far too busy and she had come to loathe inefficiency in her attempts to build a working village-so she had taken to succumbing to her pettiness in the moments it would bring her the most joy.
Akane was careful never to insult him in a way a five year old wouldn't, and always-always to his face. Tobirama was burdened with far too much dignity to acknowledge such childish insults, after all-and watching the way he held himself, carefully pretending she'd never said anything at all-made it significantly easier to work with him.
It also helped that time and again, Tobirama still sent some of the most sensitive and important projects the village had available her way-and a lot of Akane's clout and reputation within the village at large had been built on exactly those projects that she finished so beautifully. Considering that no other clan had anyone in any important positions that wasn't a clan head, heir, or a close relation to either-it spoke well of both Akane and her clan that she was so accomplished at both. While ninja respected strength, bureaucracy and politics tended to only really be taught to those in the upper echelons of the clan. Not every clan even bothered to teach their more expendable members so much as to read.
So while Tobirama's grumpy face and attitude were not in favor of her clan, his actions decidedly benefited the Uchiha. It had been l confusing until she realized that Tobirama's bigotry, while more than well ingrained-tended to disappear in the face of logic. He didn't like their clan, and he probably never would-but he did work with them and even did it well.
Akane had a track record that spoke for how well she worked for the village, so of course he would keep sending important projects her way. She'd pretty much managed to make herself indispensable, so he couldn't afford to discard such an asset anymore than Akane could go without Cho's assistance. And then Akane had married Kotaro and Tobirama hadn't been able to stop himself from twitching when he heard the news.
Technically, the Uzumaki blood ties between Mito and Hashirama were closer than the ones Kotaro had to any Senju-most political marriages tended to happen to the politically important after all, something quite gross but fairly prevalent in her current era. Fortunately that had nothing to do with Kotaro who was an orphan-but Hashirama tended to consider any Uzumaki in the village as a close family member and so considered Akane an in-law after their marriage. She had dinner with them on occasion along with Madara, Izuna, Touka and Kana. Showing the other clans that their bonds were more than just lip service.
Akane had gotten married.
It was almost funny-marriage had been so important to Samantha. The few boyfriends she'd had had each filled up journal after journal with everything she learned from how those relationships crumbled. Being a good partner had been important to her-she'd learned her failings as a girlfriend seriously and diligently tried to find ways around them. Samantha had never found a partner who could overcome those flaws-not even when she tried her best to compromise.
With Kotaro-half of them weren't even considered flaws. Her husband liked that Akane made her community her business and was an active participant, even if it meant she had less time for him. He liked how hard she worked to get ahead of the problems she saw coming-he actually encouraged her and never seemed to resent bringing her lunch or dinner when she forgot to eat even when it became what he did for nearly every meal.
Akane was so grateful to have him. She tried to show him-to carve out early mornings or late late nights when it was just the two of them in a world of their own. She could admit that for a while she'd relied far too heavily on sex as a source of connection, but they had worked though that issue easily enough and Akane was so intensely glad to have him at her side. To have him hold her late at night as they whispered softly about their days or whatever topic they meandered into.
Kotaro had even explained to her the basics of how sealing worked-a privilege he'd teased, for the couple of months they'd been engaged, granted only to spouses.
Sealing was-complicated.
It seemed to mean different things to different people-which was how styles of sealing came about. It reminded her bizarrely of the wiccans she'd known in her first life, there was a lot of talk of understanding energy and intention. Especially the way Uzumaki sealing seemed to work; from what Akane understood of it, the focus of Uzumaki style sealing was conviction. It was putting yourself in a battle of wills with the Universe and using chakra to cheat and eke out a win.
Akane didn't really have time to study seals, not with how busy she was-but she could admit exactly the kind of thing she'd try to do if she had. It didn't make her seem life the most stable of individuals-but Akane had come to accept that she was far too broken to pretend to be. If Akane could make a seal-any seal in the world, it'd be one to make her loved ones come back to her. An Izanagi of her very own. A second chance past the impenetrable specter of death.
It was the only seal she ever thought about-idle as the thoughts were.
So she had been completely surprised and delighted when Kotaro used sealing to fix one of her long-standing problems. The green houses.
Akane had wanted to create as many greenhouses for Konoha as she could. But the Uchiha elders considered the way they grew their crops in winter to be a clan secret. Ninja most often got ahead by hoarding knowledge others didn't have-and they had been at war too long not to stack as many chips in the clans favor as possible. As many Uchiha that lived in the village and as many different clans that had made the place their home, Konoha was still considered too new to be trusted.
Ninja clans had not gotten through the warring clans era by putting all their eggs in one basket. There were still hidden strongholds where the clan quietly kept some Ninja and Kunochi in rotation. The idea of giving out clan secrets was anathema. But Akane was beginning to suspect that a war would start within the year and anything that would help the village get ahead was one she wanted to share. So she was considering putting her foot down-something she'd only confessed to Kotaro because blatantly going against the elders and even her clan head was not going to be pretty, even if Akane had thought of a way to get away with it.
But her husband, her wonderful ever surprising husband had worked out a seal with the clan heads wife that would be a clan secret that would basically kick start hydroponics within the clan and thus made the original 'green house technology' somewhat outdated and an acceptable loss to be given up in the face of the benefit.
She just-she loved him so much. Most days she didn't know what she would do without him. Something she shared reverently with him damn near every night they spent together. If not for the war-Akane would have looked forward to adding to her family with children of their own. She thought about children with some mixture of Kotaros gorgeous purple eyes, red hair, or tanned skin with Uchiha genes. In her heart of hearts, Akane wanted that. A smaller family within her own, the way her brother, Cho, and Aiko and her wife had. More people to love and adore, extra special for being their own.
But the first shinobi war was coming and Kotaro had been horrified enough by tales of her childhood to put a pin on children for the moment. Thankfully-Akane had not looked forward to having to convince him to see things her way.
War was coming-and much like she'd discovered the unique horror of what war was like against one clan, Akane was sure she'd learn the particular horrors of war against another village in time. As much as she didn't want it-it was inevitable.
Konoha had existed for five years. In that time, they had yet to be attacked-they had held peace for the longest record in the Uchiha archives. No war with the Senju or any other clans. Five years and a population boom among those clans that had founded Konoha. Five years-and a grand festival to mark their accomplishment.
Five years-and Akane was beginning to suspect she knew what had sparked the first war. She could only hope the preparations she'd made would be enough.
X
Next up is the perspective Haruki-the twin with the Sharingan and that's not gonna be as kind to Akane and the fam-ditto for…the rest of the fic probably? I mean it's not like we don't know what time period I'm covering…So like-y'all are reading this to see Akane's journey right? Because that's all I got to give tbh.
So thank you to everyone leaving me comments and Kudos as always-I'm always delighted to hear from y'all and about where y'all think I'm taking this fic!