Author's Note: Agh! I'm sorry, I forgot again DX I guess I should just upload this on Thursdays instead, lol XD Please enjoy! Lots of explaining in here, I think. More present-time stuff though! Aren't you glad? XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter Four the Ookamika

THERE WERE DOZENS OF shinobi, of all ages, of both genders, milling around. It seemed like the inner systems of an ant hill, except the ants here were not particularly in a rush to do anything. Children ran around the dozens of tunnels that vanished and reappeared here and there. Right off the bat, the "ocean visitor" could name some of them as bloodline members of her clan by their dark skin, eye color, and their tell-tale lock of hair dyed the color of the father's hair. The symbol of her clan ran rampant here. She could feel the tears fighting to well up in her eyes, but her pride swallowed them down, the lump in her throat, too. The last time she had seen that symbol flying proudly was the day it was burned down. Never had the "ocean visitor" believed she would become so emotional about two squares overlaying each other. "So this… is what has become of the Ookamika Clan…"

The boy who had been her escort the entirety of the journey eyed her. Surely he had seen her eyes welling up, but he was smart enough to keep the comments to himself. "This is not just the home of the Ookamika. This is also the greatest gathering of the Kurokami."

The girl felt her stomach drop. "K-kurokami? I thought… that was all a lie."

"You're staring at one," he added with a smirk. Her gold eyes widened, in slight fear and in plenty of awe.

When she as younger, the Kurokami, or the Black Gods as they so vainly had named themselves, were fabled to be descendants of the old civilization the Ookamika Clan was said to hail from. They could be identified by their chakra's elemental affinity. The modern Ookamika Clan had only Wind and Fire elemental affinities, the result of the two poorer districts of Wind and Fire having thrown a successful and gruesome revolt against the richer districts of Earth and Water. The Kurokami had Earth and Water elemental affinities. At a single point in time, there was only one who had a Lightning elemental affinity, and that gift marked the clan leader. Back then, Lightning gifts marked the normally undisputed ruler of the old civilization. "A Black God… Who would have known…"

"Actually, Jigoku knew all along."

"Ji… Jigoku…? He's still alive…? All these years…?"

"He wasn't that ancient, you know," the boy continued. He beckoned her to follow him, which she obliged without a fight. They took a quick journey through the various tunnels built underground, she doing her best to ignore to wide-eyed stares she was receiving from the people whose attention she had caught. She was not a well-loved celebrity amongst her fellow clan members, but she was most certainly heard of. Her red hair and eye scar made her unmistakable to those who knew what to look for, despite her battered appearance. She clutched the scratched out Iwa headband tighter in her hands, feeling the perfectly cut edges digging into her skin.

In the nine or so years she had been gone, she had believed there was only a handful of Ookamika left. Sure, she had been told by her escort that there were a hundred of them left, but she would never believe it without seeing it with her own two eyes - well, what her one and a half eyes could see. She had always had a gut feeling that Jigoku, her sensei and the last clan leader, was alive, but he'd been alive so long she wasn't sure she wanted to believe he was. Plus, what would she say? Nine years of silence on her part, nine years since he destroyed the corrupted part of their clan. Nine years since she had ignored his call and ran to Iwa. Nine years.

The journey to a quieter part of the underground complex was far too short, the butterflies flying like never before in the girl's stomach. She could feel the chakra signature of the man behind the door wash over her, along with the sickening nostalgia. He could feel hers, too; she knew, as he had stopped his activities inside the room. "Bring her in, Takashi." Takashi, her escort, clutched the door knob, and slid it open.

He looked so much older than she had last seen him. He looked as though more than just nine years had passed him by - perhaps ninety years. Before she could inquire what happened, Jigoku answered for her, "I cannot keep up the jutsu I have been using all these years. Time is catching up with me, at long last." She was about to ask how he knew, but he pointed to his eyes. She almost let herself smile, remembering now the Kekkei Genkai of the Ookamika Clan, the Mind's Eye. She had it herself, but, oh, how long it had been since she had called upon her bloodline limit.

"Jigoku-sama, please remove the jutsu you placed on my right eye," she requested once she got down to her knees, having followed Takashi's example. Jigoku had been the one light of her life back when she was a child, servant to her father. She had gotten into an argument with her father, who would have no such disrespect, from a girl, above all. He had one of his subordinates make sure she remembered her place, at the cost of her right eye. Jigoku had come to her rescue, but far too late; her right eye was almost completely incapable of sight. That she could even see light from her right eye was a miracle enough. Jigoku had eased her pain, placing a genjutsu that enhanced her visual capability in her right eye, but the damage was still there.

"You do not cherish the minimal sight you gain from it? I know my jutsu has deteriorated and your eyesight there gets worse, but surely you would like to see out of your right eye as long as you can," Jigoku replied.

"If it will lengthen Jigoku-sama's lifespan, then it is my filial duty and devoted wish," she replied, almost on automatic from old habits.

"We do not live like that anymore. I destroyed that part of our Clan life. Nine years ago, am I right?" He returned to his seat, rubbing his temples in hopes his migraines would go away. Takashi started, ready to care for the Ookamika Clan's leader, but was waved down. "I'm an old man, Takashi, but don't make me feel any older. I wish to skip the theatrics, and I know you both wish to do the same. You were around when the signs showed themselves. The war is coming. We cannot escape it, and we cannot let the Akatsuki rise to power. The Akatsuki has no room for us in their plans. They will destroy us. I think I need not ask of you to help me in to fulfill my dream to stop them."

"Of course not, Jigoku-sama," the girl responded.

"Your team has been waiting nine years for you." Neither did she nor Takashi need another hint; Takashi led her out of Jigoku's living quarters and study. A pang of guilt tugged at her heart. There was really no blame to be put on any one's shoulders, but she felt guilty regardless, which was very much unusual for her. Jigoku seemed so unlike himself, so… hurt. Perhaps he had much faith in her loyalty, as he had basically saved her life, yet she had become one of his greatest disappointments.

"Well, I certainly did not wait nine years for you, and I don't think our squad leader knows he did," Takashi said suddenly, heading a floor upward, the rowdy noises from the main hall hardly having an effect here. He pushed the door open, gesturing to her to enter. The window showing a bright blue sky and the sudden rise in temperature were dead giveaways that they were no longer underground. "He'll be here in a minute. While I call for him, you better try to clean up. I'm not kidding when I say you're a mess. And my jacket?" The said object was thrown at his face. He closed the door, not wanting to have a part in her indecency.

Staring at the mirror, she shocked herself. She knew she was ragged and worn-looking, but what she saw did not compare to what she thought the looked like. Nasty scratches, possibly from jagged stones in the river where she fell, were still present, but slowly fading. The dirt was mostly gone, but some still remained. Scrubbing would have to wait, and so would the hair cut she was so in need of, her hair having grown out of control during the time she had not roused from the deep slumber from the river to the sea. Her gold eyes were faded and miserable-looking. Much to her relief, her red choker was still intact, though in dire need of washing. Through the mirror she could see a neatly folded stack of clothes on the couch in a corner. She smiled to herself, wondering if they had changed it every year to suit her growing body, brushing away the slight melancholy of it. She quickly donned the first thing on the stack, a long and thin red overcoat of sorts. Throwing the gold metal belt she had worn for years aside, she snatched a belt from the pile, tugging on the pants just as she felt Takashi returning with an unfamiliar but somewhat familiar chakra signature. Wearing a proper shirt would have to wait. Soon enough, Takashi reentered the room with their team leader, a tall young man, a shinobi, possibly a chuunin or jounin from Kumogakure, the Hidden Cloud. He had gold eyes much like the girl, and dark blue hair like most men in the Ookamika Clan had, though it had a strip of white in his bangs. He had a rather charming smile, and manners to boot, the girl noted as he offered his hand.

"New here, huh? People will stare the first time 'round, especially if they know you're one of Jigoku's students. But you'll get used to it soon." He whistled, "They said you had violent red hair, but I always thought that was an exaggeration."

She smiled back to him, immediately taking a liking to his loose nature, which seemed genuine. "It's one of those things you get from a Suna mother."

"I see. I had a Kumo mother. Ookamika Shirotsuki. You?"

"That's Ookamika Saori." The sound of the window softly shutting redirected the attention of the room's previous occupants. The "ocean visitor," Saori, felt a yell rise in her throat. It was only natural to want to scream in the rather frightening presence of their new guest. This white haired woman who donned the green pants and shirt was not known to be particularly friendly. Saori could not help but stare at the elder's blank headband.

"You… you're…"

"Yes, I am. I am the Genyou Senshi."

HIS ENTIRE BODY WAS aching. From his head to his heart to his toes, they all screamed in pain. His head suffered from a throbbing headache. His eyes cried from insomnia. His joints felt ancient from disuse. But most of all, his heart was bleeding from shame.

Pride blown to smithereens, the young man had crawled back to his room. His dark blue hair had grown to unprecedented lengths and was largely unkempt. It couldn't be helped - after all, in the last half year he'd been recovering from a brutal fight he had no right to have survived from. And now this, his reward for his failure to win that fight. Stripped of a title that was his by all rights. Oh, he could see the taunting red eyes of his cousin now, dancing in front of him. And where was the victor of that battle? Had she gotten out alive? He had been set up - it was all a huge set up - and he was sure no help was to come, yet help did come. Who had sent it? Had someone taken pity?

Worse yet to imagine was the shame of his mother. He rarely saw her now, leaving her to deal with the snickers and snide remarks that were meant to be born on his shoulders. His mother had hoped so much for him - to do what his father could not do, to fill his father's shoes and be even greater. He slowly forced himself into his bed, his joints yelling louder now as he moved. A faithful attendant remained by his side throughout the entirety of his downfall. He ought to thank her some time.

UCHIHA MADARA WAS HAVING a headache of his own. Aged hands on either side of his world map, he glared at it, his Sharingan flaring in both eyes, as if daring the paper to show him a solution to his problems. It had been twenty-seven years since he set his plan into motion, maybe fifty or so since he had first thought of it. He'd gone to the most wretched creatures and showed them his light, only to have them die on him. But no matter, he promised to take care of them so long as they served him. So out he had gone and found a willing medic to somehow repair and restore Sasori's heart chamber. The fool had learned to hide his chamber better, but the fool was still a fool at the end of the day. Gone and found himself a lover, had he! After all Madara had done for him, he'd found himself a girl - the girl who had killed him the first time around, of all beings! Oh, he had done Sasori in then, making sure that no medic - he had heard that Sasori's lover was one Haruno Sakura, one of the greatest medics in the land - could save him now. He had it in his mind to remove Sakura and their bastard son out of the picture, too. But, of course, when did the betrayal end? Deidara had swooped in to save the puppet master's lover, along with that obnoxious, D-Rank, traitorous red-haired girl from Iwa. And here, Madara had thought by sending Itachi to assassinate the two, there would be no "if" in the assassinations. The pink-haired woman and her brat were both alive.

None too thrilled about the situation, Madara made sure he would not repeat his mistake. With careful planning and cunning wit, the two Iwa idiots had fallen right into his hands, one right after the other. The girl from Iwa - Saori, was it? - had gone off and killed herself in thinking she might spare Deidara, and Deidara had killed himself for the sake of his pride. Madara had gone and ensured Uchiha Sasuke did not fall to Deidara's blast - Deidara's leaving had been all for nothing on his part. For Madara, the third fool in the bunch was out of the way.

But with both Deidara and Sasori gone, he was getting anxious. And worse yet, his infamous Zombie team, made from Hidan of Ame and Kakuzu of Taki, had a serious run-in with a team from Konoha. They had survived it, even took down a jounin from the team, but they had put Konoha on serious alert. Madara always knew that the two would run into trouble, the way they were picking off wanted men like flies. "Simply too good of a shinobi," Madara muttered to himself. Of course, they had gotten themselves killed by the same Konoha men. Four men down, five others to go. Itachi was starting to run off by himself, too, and knowing the Uchiha, Madara disliked little more. Itachi was likely one of very few who knew who he was, who knew his intentions. Madara, on the other hand, had no idea of Itachi's intentions, unsure where Itachi's loyalties were. For all Madara knew, Itachi had a target on his back.

If there was one bright spot in Madara's chaotic days it was the successful assassinations of the Fifth Kazekage and the Fifth Hokage. Their joint deaths were so sudden that it threw Suna and Konoha into chaos - making destroying Konoha easy. His men had gone and destroyed Konoha with the help of his newfound allies from Kiri, Taki, Kumo, Oto, Kusa, Iwa, and a faction from Suna. But his solid grip on the nations' alliance wasn't as solid as he had hoped - the nations attempted to do the Akatsuki in. Worse than that, they believed they had done in the Akatsuki, the organization that Madara had nurtured with all his care. He was forced to play possum while waiting for a chance to strike back or pretend to overlook the betrayal and deception. He no longer needed the nations' assistance, now that Konoha had been obliterate to nothingness, but he could not risk them getting in the way of his greater goal.

However a success his attack on Konoha was, there was another problem: in the midst of the chaos, many Konoha shinobi had disappeared. One of which, was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki.

And then there were the rumors - rumors that Ookamika Saori was not in fact as dead as Madara had presumed. He had neither the time nor the cares to ensure she had died. She had been a minor threat at the time. Her Kekkei Genkai, the Mind's Eye, was only up the stage two, his informants had said, the stage where evolution stops for most Ookamika who gain access to the bloodline limit. But if the Ookamika's leader, Jigoku, got to her this time around, there was no saying in how much stronger she could grow. The Mind's Eye in both the third and fourth states were potentially dangerous to Madara, despite the fact his powerful Mangekyou Sharingan would nullify most of its power. And the fifth state that rumors have spoke of? The thought of an entirely black eye, representing the fifth state, caused further headache and worry.

The great warrior felt as though he had few to entrust with their duties left. Pain had yet to fail him, and so long as he had Pain in his pocket, Konan was sure to come along with the package. Fumbling with the little wooden toy soldier meant to represent Pain, he hesitantly placed it where Kumo was on the world map. The Hidden Cloud was the home of Killer Bee, the other remaining Jinchuuriki of Eight Tails. Surely Pain would not fail in finding and retrieving the Hachibi's Jinchuuriki.

AS FAR AS UCHIHA Itachi knew, he only had a few weeks to accomplish his wishes. Knowing the way Madara's mind worked, and furthermore, by knowing Madara's true intentions, he knew at some point Madara's poison would taint the mind of his little brother, Sasuke. Itachi knew he needed to die by Sasuke's hand - only then might Sasuke stop pursuing the Akatsuki, only then might Sasuke return to Konoha's safety. Out here, though strong, Madara still overpowered Sasuke. Madara knew Sasuke was after him, too - and just like the crafty person Itachi knew Madara as, it would not surprise him if Madara twisted the truth and fed it to Sasuke to get Sasuke off his back and against Konoha. I did not lose my life in Konoha for this. I lost to it to protect Konoha. I lost it to protect Sasuke.

Hoshigaki Kisame, his partner, eyed him curiously. Kisame had always known Itachi as a peculiar man, but as of late he seemed more on edge, like a trapped animal. As a great predator, Kisame knew the frantic signs of prey well. He made no comment on it, as troublesome as it was becoming. Itachi was a great warrior, and he'd pull through, Kisame was sure. Besides, what was one man's business was not his own unless it was his mission.

"We're here. You coming?" Kisame asked his partner, whose brow still showed signs of concern. The black-haired male shook his head, waving Kisame off.

"I'll join you later."

"Something happening tomorrow?"

Itachi glanced at Kisame. Though the Kiri nin was an S-Rank missing nin, Itachi felt like he trusted him more than anyone else, other than Sasuke and the Sandaime. He sensed Kisame respected him.

"Soon… I will find Naruto… then Sasuke… and I will tell him where we will fight…"

"Oh? The Kyuubi is missing. I hear Leader's after him. It has been a long time, no? Ready to kill them now?"

Wearily, Itachi nodded. Some things he ought to leave unsaid. After all, what might Kisame say if he knew Itachi had no intention of killing Sasuke or Naruto? And hardly was it a matter of whether Sasuke was ready to fight with Itachi after all this time, but a matter that Itachi was running out of time. He had let Sasuke submerge himself in the darkness for far too long now - Sasuke's brutal and vicious battle with Deidara was evidence of the darkness Sasuke was surrounded by. Naruto Itachi had to speak with before Sasuke was too far under; Naruto was the brightest source of light Itachi had ever laid eyes on. He was obnoxious and loud, but Itachi had no better hopes in anyone but Naruto in his ability to pry open Sasuke's eyes. Itachi was sure he would be able to find the wild boy, and would go to all sorts of measures to do so. Naruto had waited some three or four years for Sasuke's return. With Itachi's help, maybe Naruto might get his wish fulfilled, if only to save Sasuke from Madara.

An ugly thought began to sink in his mind - what if it was already too late, to the point that Naruto could not revert him? Who would protect Sasuke when Itachi went? Who would protect Sasuke from the ugly truth? His mind wandered back to the day he annihilated his clan. The original plan was for Itachi to destroy the clan on his own - but when Danzou went off to stir trouble in his quest for power, other clans from other nations came into the picture. He had a quick run-in with a representative of a faction in Kumogakure no Sato who wanted to rid of the Tamakachi Clan, relatively stress-free. However, Itachi's prime concern outside his own clan back then was to keep in contact with a representative of the Ookamika Clan - more specifically, the Tsukiyomi side, its members users of the Fuuton, or Wind Jutsu, who were, then, in alliance with Sunagakure no Sato. Suna's government made no inputs supporting or criticizing the Tsukiyomi's plan to destroy the troublesome Amaterasu side, made of Katon or Fire Jutsu users, whom they had battled for clan control for years. As far as Itachi knew, of the four nations who agreed on this joint overthrow of some clan or another, only Konoha's mission succeeded. The Tamakachi had caught wind of the plan and ran south, whereas Iwa's clan in question had begged for compromise and won it. In Suna, the Tsukiyomi had gone through with the plan, but was devastatingly overwhelmed by the clan leader's power. Nonetheless, the Ookamika Clan vanished after the Tsukiyomi's defeat. What was supposed to have been a groundbreaking reaffirmation of the nation's powers ended up merely as the shocking downfall of the Uchiha Clan and a hardly mentioned disappearance of a Clan in Suna.

Itachi remembered his trips to the border with Suna well; on his first trip, he had been very tentative. He hated his mission, hated even more that four of the five great nations were doing some form of this traitorous act as well. He had hardly heard of the Ookamika Clan before this; apparently, the Clan had isolated themselves from Suna but served them in return for land. Since its establishment, constant battles between the two sides of the clan had led to its decline. He had no idea what he should expect from such an environment. That first day, he was to meet up with a Tsukiyomi representative, but he was given no details of his or her appearance. When she first walked out from the harsh sun's rays into the woods were Itachi waited, he was not sure what to make of her. She had dark blue hair - apparently the most common hair color among the Ookamika , though Itachi swore only men had that hair color - and had her gold-colored hitai-ate across her eyes, Suna's village insignia gleaming proudly on the plate.

"You're at Konoha's border. You've got business here?" Itachi had asked, playing as a border patrol member. Though he couldn't see it, he had a feeling she was squinting her eyes at him.

"And you're at Suna's border. You should know I have business, Uchiha."

"Hn." So the Tsukiyomi sent someone notable my way. If they're going to be this distrustful, I better be on tighter guard. He held out his hand, expectantly waiting for the scroll in question.

"We exchange at the same time. What do you take me for, an idiot?" Itachi felt a smile rise but forced it back down where it came from. Slowly and cautiously, they exchanged the scrolls containing information from other's leader before walking away without so much as a word.

And so the meetings had continued for another month or so before the plan was put in action. He remembered clearly the day after the attacks. Itachi had planned his escape, but unexpected border patrols had drove him down south. What he came across next had befuddled him. The messenger he had been meeting with, whose name she would not give him the honor of knowing, had run past him. She must have known he was there but she made no acknowledgment of him. There had been dark blotches on her gold hitai-ate, most likely from crying as opposed to bleeding, as it did not have a reddish hue. Itachi had dropped from his hidden position and nearly shocked the life out of her.

"You!" she cried, immediately pushing herself off the ground back to her feet. "What are you doing here?"

"I did my clan in. I cannot be shielded by Konoha for a capital offense," he had bluntly replied for no reason. "What happened to you?" In the meetings he had with her, she had always been composed. She betrayed little through her mannerisms - rather, probably she was taught that way, to be a tool and nothing more.

"Um. It went… ah… all wrong."

"You never were for the plan, were you?"

"Who could be? Aside from you? How could you be so monstrous to go for this?"

"Because I have a little brother. I cannot watch him die on the hands of Konoha or the Uchiha. You have siblings, don't you?"

"Yes; many." Itachi did not inquire further about them, having learned the history of Tsukiyomi's leader's many affairs a short while ago. "But none that I should care for."

"You must have told failed to go through for somebody."

She stared at her feet a moment, thinking. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Maybe I just don't believe in the plan."

"You told your clan leader."

"It's the most responsible thing to do."

"Sometimes you don't have to go by the textbook."

"Are you saying I should have let the Amaterasu be obliterated?"

"So there's someone you do care about on the Amaterasu side." Her open mouth began to close with no sound. She was falling apart, becoming a mess. One little slip up, and someone talented like Itachi would know it all. She'd best keep her mouth shut, but she felt like yelling more than anything.

"I have a little half-sister. Many younger half-siblings, but she's the only one I had to…" The tears were turning her entire hitai-ate dark with moisture. She sank to her knees and Itachi joined her. She told him everything from the start - how she was born with her Kekkei Genkai already activated and therefore labeled to be erased from the face of the earth. She was saved only because her father, the Tsukiyomi's leader, recognized that she would be useful in the days to come. Proud that her father had saved her life, she had dutifully served him as expected of Ookamika daughters. She loved that she was treated differently. Even when she saw him mistreating one of his own daughters, who had been relegated to the ranks of servants, she felt no sympathy for her less fortunate half-siblings.

Yet one peculiar night came around, when she was summoned at the oddest hours of the night; she found her egotistical father berating the same servant she'd seen before - red hair, gold eyes. She'd heard this was the brat of Suna's village whore whom the Kazekage had promised to the Tsukiyomi leader as a peace offering. For the brat to be treated as a servant was of no surprise, but for her father to be berating her in private? That was unusual. Regardless, she got to her knees and flared her chakra as a sign she had arrived. The yelling and sobbing stopped as her father opened the door. "Get in here," he snapped. Then, pointing to the brat, he added, "Use your Mind's Eye on her. Third State. Make her cut out her eye."

Needless to say, the messenger was scared out of her mind. Force a five year old to carve her own eye out? That was a higher level of cruelty. She had no place to protest, though. Quietly, in her mind, she began to contemplate whether she could user her Kekkei Genkai against her father as a route out of this mess. Her father's Kekkei Genkai was only at state two, versus her state three Mind's Eye. But she was young and she doubted herself. All she could do was make it quick, minimize the damage as to keep some eyesight, and be glad she was the one who would loose her eyesight. The things she wished she could scream, both at herself and at her father. Her strength recoiled inside of her, submitting to an unknown cowardice. The screams that ensued reverberated in her ears; the Tsukiyomi's representative would not sleep that night, or the one following it.

"She is my regret. I took her eye and now to take her life? I have stepped outside of my boundaries," the young woman continued. Itachi could only imagine the pain he would suffer, having to put Sasuke through that. Though, in a way, he already did.

"You have to run now. You have no way of knowing if you will be punished by your leader, but Suna will, when they find out you betrayed their ally. The hair has to go. That and your skin color will give you away if you ever travel south," Itachi instructed. With his help, dark blue gave way to white. The gold colored hitai-ate which bore Suna's insignia was burned away in favor of a green one with a blank plate. "You must remain unknown to everyone. You must remain as the Unknown Soldier, the Genyou Senshi."

"SHE JUST CAME BACK, nee-san. No need to freak her out," said Shirotsuki. The Genyou Senshi disregarded his comment, her eyes, hidden behind her green hitai-ate, seeming to stare at particularly nothing. Takashi slightly lowered his head as a sign of respect to the woman, whose age was indeterminable. Saori, however, was less than disrespectful, gawking at Shirotsuki in shock - had he just called the Genyou Senshi his sister? "What are you here for, anyways? I thought we agreed this should be the oh so tear-jerking meeting, obnoxious family members excluded."

"Watch what you're saying, you brat," the Genyou Senshi replied. "I wanted to see it myself." It? Something inside Saori snapped. Did the Genyou Senshi just refer to her as it? "She hasn't changed much. Lost the baby fat. Still dirty like she used to be. Hopefully a lot smarter."

"Hey, hey, don't be mean," Shirotsuki lightly chuckled. Saori began to feel self-conscious, letting her overlong bangs fall in front of her eyes further. She felt like a sun beam was shining right on her eye, right on that scar.

"Just how old are you?" Saori asked suddenly. Takashi's eyes slightly widened, as if aware of the carnage that was only expected to come. To ask an older woman their age! She must have lost her manners in that river.

"Not as old as you might think I am," the Genyou Senshi replied, heading towards the door. Shirotsuki could feel the Genyou Senshi barging into his mind as she left him a warning message: "She's not as rules free as you think she is. Don't mess with her." Shirotsuki mentally groaned, hoping the Genyou Senshi would hear. He hated her warning messages, which never fully informed him of the true message.

"Well -! That was pleasant," Shirotsuki said sarcastically. "I've waited awhile now. You should introduce yourself. I am your team leader, and Takashi here and I will be your team members until you kick the bucket. Wonderful, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," she said most unenthusiastically. It was too early in the morning to be thinking about something as morbid as death.

"I guess she's shy," Shirotsuki added in a loud whisper, meant to produce a laugh from her. It failed, but Takashi took his cue without much further nudging.

"I'm Takashi, family name Kurokami. I'm not a direct descendant of the Black Gods. I have Suiton, or water type, chakra. I sleep. Often." A pointed look from Shirotsuki notified him to indulge on his hobby. Sighing, he lifted his left hand, where there were four brush strokes creating the character for water. "It's my birthmark, but it is also the source of my immense chakra reserves. When I sleep, my chakra production increases by one hundred percent. The surplus chakra is stored into my birthmark. I'm also the Ookamika's best assassin - it's what I'm almost always commissioned for. We make the Alpha Squad, Jigoku-sama's strongest team. You are on the team solely because the potential your Kekkei Genkai has. Jigoku-sama strongly believes you will achieve the fourth state, which nobody here is capable of yet, though many aspire to surpass your eye."

"Wait, is - is the Genyou Senshi part of the Ookamika Clan?" Saori asked. Shirotsuki shrugged, flashing a grin that seemed so much like Deidara's.

"I know what you're thinking," intervened Takashi. "I'm told she does have the Mind's Eye. And, yes, I believe she only has been to the third state, which you probably know well of."

"Why would I…?"

"Takashi, now is not the time," Shirotsuki interrupted in a very direct manner. Takashi retreated without protest. "Well, then, I'm Shirotsuki, but I'm not a Black God like this fellow over here. I was a Chuunin in Kumo when I heard Jigoku's Call; I judge that I'm a jounin now that Jigoku has trained me. I wasn't going to answer his Call, much like you, because that was the first time I had heard of Jigoku or the clan. It took the Genyou Senshi to convince me to come.

"I'm the Ookamika's best strategist. I was always for the thinking and not the fighting. The Genyou Senshi, my full-blooded sister, blames my dislike for fighting on my laziness. She won't tell me her name or anything else. She's a little silly - her own brother, and she won't tell me a thing, ne?" Saori offered a small smile, which he took gladly. "You?"

Saori took a deep breath. What should she keep to herself? Surely Jigoku knew everything about her, but that didn't mean Shirotsuki or Takashi had to know. "Ah… well! I'm told my mother was Naomi. According to a deceased Akatsuki, she was the village… er… prostitute. But she wasn't always like that, not according to him. When my maternal grandparents died, she didn't know what to do, and one bad thing lead to another, and the next thing she knew she was part of a brothel. My dad treated me as a servant - I mean, neither of you guys have lived in the Ookamika compound in Suna, but I'm sure you've heard - that kind of thing was normal. That was the strange kind of life the Ookamika led, men on top and women on bottom."

Saori could only curse her own naïveté. How she could have lived six years in belief the way she lived life was right, she did not know. She had a rude awakening when genin from Sunagakure came to the village escorted by chuunin to learn about Wind Country's culture. One of the genin had been particularly snobby-looking and overflowing with self-confidence. Saori had seen the way the men looked at the girl, whose name was Benihana. They looked down on her, disliked that she was able to stride so proudly and hated they were unable to set the girl back in line as they could not fight Suna. Benihana had seen the way that Saori had to kneel before her father, how she was his servant. "You're his daughter. Keep your tail out from your legs and demand for some respect," Benihana had snapped at Saori, one of the many daughters Benihana found shameful. For some stranger to question the way of life was extremely confusing, but she listened regardless, since she didn't know any better. It took several more weeks before Saori began to open her eyes, when her ignorance began to fade away. Her father had noticed the change and was furious, naturally, and the more he yelled at her the more she rebelled. Jigoku took Saori as his student as to give her protection, having been able to see what was coming. It only infuriated Saori's father more, and probably further agitated the animosity the Tsukiyomi had felt for the Amaterasu.

It was only a matter of time before Jigoku would have to cast her out of the village for the sake of her life. For the first time, she was asked to go outside of the Ookamika compound to Suna on orders to gather supplies with the rest of her fellow servants. She hadn't questioned it at the time, even though she knew Ookamika sustained themselves, even though she knew servants never left the compound. She had taken all of her world's possessions with her, as Jigoku had instructed her - a small notebook Benihana had given her, her ink stick and worn brush, and the red choker her mother had left her, given to her by a blue-haired kunoichi that worked for Saori's father.

In midst of her excitement for visiting Suna and possibly seeing Benihana, Saori had missed Jigoku's orders of staying in Suna until someone retrieved them. In spite of the other servants' warnings, Saori rand back home, only to find a raging fire consuming the place she had called home. There were still screams coming from within the compound; with just one glance, she knew what Jigoku had done, why she had gone to Suna for the first time, why the other servants warned her not to go back. She hadn't known, however, that the Genyou Senshi had been ordered to ensure Saori's stay in Suna and that she enroll into Suna's ninja training system as soon as possible, that the Genyou Senshi had fled upon finding Saori amiss. Saori ran from the carnage, not the slightest bit concerned about the whereabouts of her father, clutching her four most prized possessions in the world with a heavy heart. She hid in the desert for one and a half desolate days, attempting to flee into Fire Country. Two days into her isolation, she heard Jigoku's Call, the inexplicable want to reunite with him. Instead, she ignored him, feared him, and fled northward. It was some time later and much luck when came collapsed near Iwa, the Hidden Stone Village.

The night she collapsed on the main roadway in and out of Iwa, a blonde haired woman - so she had believed - generously offered Saori her former home. Saori was much too tired to question this sudden generosity. Rudely awaken in the wee hours of the morning, the Iwa officials had placed her in irons and did a thorough inspection of the apartment she'd been sleeping in. They would never find anything, as its former occupant was no fool when she (or he) left Iwa. Saori was to be promptly deported out of the country, having gotten in without permission of the Tsuchikage or the Tsuchi Daimyo, when the Tsuchikage pardoned her and had her immediately enrolled into the local academy on the sole basis of her chakra type, unusual for Iwagakure shinobi.

The trials of academy life had not been all too challenging but none too fun, either. From the first day, she'd been labeled as a potentially bad influence, something her classmates had picked up from their parents' gossip. Saori quickly learned to dye her hair black after day one at the school. She claimed amnesia when Iwa officials had asked her for her name, and so they simply called her "foreigner." That is, until Ootowari Toyotomi had come along.

Toyotomi was then ten, three years her senior, and was privately tutored by the jounin Mikaiyo, having graduated from Iwa's academy after three years of enrollment, from six to nine. He arrogantly refused to be a part of any genin teams at the time, and went on D-Rank and C-Rank missions as a fill-in when there was a team member short or alone with Mikaiyo as part of his training. All of this he was perfectly capable of, as any other Ootowari prodigy should be.

When he had heard of Saori's arrival, he only had interests in her motives, none of which he believed were innocent. It was his mother who convinced him to arrange an introductory meeting with Saori - it was not the first time; Toyotomi's mother was usually the one pushing him to do things that he really did not want to do but he benefitted from anyways. Saori would always remember the first time she met him, up in a more mountainous area north of Iwa at the end of her lunch break. Even at the age of ten, he left a deep impression on Saori. He introduced himself and was the friendliest person she had come across since that woman (or man) who offered his or her home to her. He outright told her that he did not believe in her amnesia claim, and suggested something simple and pretty like the sky. Like Sora. She had gone by that name since then, up until her imprisonment for treason.

Toyotomi had walked her to shuriken practice, where he won the hearts of many of Saori's classmates (mostly female hearts; the boys were rather annoyed) displaying his amazing accuracy. Saori found herself quite annoyed herself; whenever she would make wonderfully precise and accurate throws, Toyotomi would displace each of her own shuriken and be more accurate than she. He stayed with her for what remained of the school day, and walked her home. She, in turn, showed him her fire jutsu as promised. If Toyotomi used it as a test, she could confidently say she passed with flying colors. She was just eleven when Toyotomi pulled her out of school early to be a member of his team.

"Aren't you leaving the whole part about your escapade with Deidara and the other two?" Shirotsuki smirked.

"You don't need to know about that," Saori glared at him. He held his arms up in playful defeat; on the sides of his arms she could see a long seam and stitches keeping the skin together. "What happened?" She inquired. It seemed neat and precise, too neat for a battle wound.

"Oh, yes, this! We're the Ookamika elite. Jigoku-sama has a knack for telling who'll go far and who won't way ahead of time. I mean, seriously ahead of time. He knew I was going to be super brilliant, like I am, but I was a Kumo soldier then. He couldn't just take me and run," he laughed, though his companions didn't join me. The glazed look over their eyes hinted their minds were elsewhere. "Anyways!" he barked loudly. "Since he knows talent when he sees it, he, ah, labels you. Since he knew you when you were younger, he probably already implanted your 'Last Resort.'"

"Last Resort?" Saori mumbled.

"It's not really a last resort, but you're not really supposed to use it as anything but a last resort. All Ookamika elites have one. Because I was like eighteen years too old when I met Jigoku and because I was under the Kumo flag when I was younger, I had to have mine sewed in - see?" One moment, Saori was staring at his stitched arm, doing her best not to puke. In the next moment, a vicious-looking four-edged blade sprang from the stitches from both of his arms.

"That's in your arm?"

"No, silly, I have a summoning script in my arm. It's in there so there is no way to remove it, unless my arm gets cut off. Mine will only react if I force my chakra to my arms. Yours should react when you flare your chakra right, if he had it fixed into you genetically when he trained you. Takashi, show her yours." Takashi held up his left hand, where his birthmark marred his skin. Saori felt a flare of his chakra, and soon had to duck out of the way from an icicle protruding from his tattoo. The ice wrapped up to protect his arm from outside damage.

"How will I know how I should flare my chakra?"

"Nothing too flashy," added Takashi. "Usually you only flare a little of your chakra, so it feels effortless. Just do it as you feel you should." The two boys felt it; but nothing happened. She tried again, yet nothing happened. "Em. Maybe he didn't give you one when you were younger?"

"How would I know?"

"You won't. You wouldn't know when he does it. I had no idea he'd done it to me until he yelled at me for not using it. He's probably gone out again, so when he comes back, you ask him if he did. Or you could try the Genyou Senshi, she probably knows." Saori gave him an unpleasant expression. "You're going to have to warm up with her at one time or another, so you might as well get a head start."

"Why? Can't I just pretend she's not there?"

"We can, but you can't. Your mind abilities are just about the greatest thing about you. The only thing great about you. Because other than that, you only have your basic fire techniques, where you stand in the shadow of the Uchiha, and your absorption technique, which is useless if you don't have a good offensive or defensive jutsu to expend your extra chakra with. There isn't a better teacher here than the Genyou Senshi. Jigoku was born with his third state eyes, so he's never needed to cross the evolution gap. But no one has ever bridged the evolution gap faster than she. A month is all it took." A month! A month was by far incredible. Some could train for years before giving up and believing their evolution had ended. "Either you choose the easy way, or you choose the hard way, which is you learn on your own. There's another guy here that has a third state eye but he's a little senile. He's an Amaterasu like you. You probably saw him all the time when you were a kid, but you just didn't know it."

Shirotsuki slowly nodded approvingly. "You kids seem to be getting along fine, so I'm going to go -"

Takashi flashed to the door before Shirotsuki had budged. "No, you give her the tour. I'm going to sleep. I really need it." Shirotsuki groaned before muttering a directive to Saori to follow him. The pair went down a floor again, where there were more people, but they kept quiet.

"This is where the elite stay. When I speak of the elite, I mean the members of the top six teams, captains of divisions, and the captains of subdivisions." The Ookamika survived through commissions, competing with shinobi villages for jobs; usually, the commissioners gave the Ookamika the dirtier jobs, because they were cheaper than criminal organizations like the Akatsuki but saved the face of the commissioners.

There were currently five main divisions, each of them headed by a member of either the Alpha Squad or the Beta Squad. The number of members on teams was based on who worked with whom best, but generally were kept to three. Saori was to displace the squad leader of the seventh squadron as the captain of the Espionage division. Shirotsuki was the captain of the Battle Tactics division, the only division that was closely scrutinized by Jigoku for fear of lost of secrets and tactics. Takashi was the captain of the Assassin division. Within his division, there was a subdivision made mostly of women who used seduction to murder their targets. This was headed by Ookamika Tamaika, quite the deadly woman in her twenties, marked for death in the old Ookamika Clan for a beauty mark under her left eye. She was relatively tolerable to most. "You might not want to believe it, but Tamaika doesn't have to do dirty work to get her targets. She can get their guards down in thirty seconds, and then they'll be dead in another fifteen, before she even gets to the bedroom. That's why she's the squad leader of the fourth squadron. Usually captains of subdivisions are members of the fourth, fifth, and sixth squads, but hardly ever squad leaders. The squad leaders of the third, fifth, and sixth teams are captains of minor divisions."

Next was a pair of twins. Their names were Hikari and Tomomi. When Saori heard Tomomi's name, and then saw him, she could not help but stare at how similar he looked and how similar his name was to that of Toyotomi. Tomomi stared straight back at her; he must have known what was going on in her head; the elite tended to know everything about other elite save for the Genyou Senshi, and Toyotomi's death and its impact on Saori was no unfamiliar gossip topic. "Hi! I'm Hikari," the girl of the pair said loudly, hoping to keep Saori from staring at her brother oddly. "I'm a Tsukiyomi. This is Tomomi. He usually lets me do the talking because I love talking! Anyways, he's an Amaterasu like you and I should hate him but I really don't, I mean, I don't hate you, either. I don't hate any Amaterasu, that's so silly! But ah, we usually do synchronized attacks, I mean, we're the best ones to do it, and we usually use this rope here so that we can tug each other out of harm's way and stuff. It's also our last resort. It's really strange, I mean, I thought it was supposed to be all genetic-y but I guess it is, because, like, we've had this rope ever since we were kids. When both of us flare our chakra, it hardens into metal, which we can reshape to our liking. Oh, yeah, we're the captains of the Thievery division, I mean, we did that all the time when we were younger, so I guess it only makes sense. But we're part of the Beta Squad. OH! Which, by the way, I've wanted to ask you, do you remember us?"

"Um, not really…," Saori hesitantly replied, quickly glancing at Shirotsuki.

"Are you sure? We were just babies then, freshly whisked from the chopping block. You know, because we're twins. Twins are like ultra-bad-luck according to tradition. Anyways. I hear you've got like the most epic Kekkei Genkai ever, so I want to see it sometime!"

"Ah, no, Hikari, you don't want her to show you her Mind's Eye. You won't like it, I promise," Shirotsuki interrupted. Somehow, he skillfully exited the twins' room. The last captain of the Tracking Division was a female. Saori's breath hitched when she saw the name plaque outside the door. The said captain was at her vanity table - Saori couldn't have expected any less of her. The Tracking captainess looked up and whistled.

"Wow. Eleven years have gone by and you look like crap," the Tracking captainess replied. There was no mistaking it; the coronet, the bow, the Kurokami symbol blazoned on her dress; the scratched out Suna headband wrapped around her waist only confirmed Saori's assumptions.

"Yeah. I've had a rough few weeks, Benihana."

Author's Note: Please review, as always!