Akane 19-20
Akane has three days of nightmares filled with Misakis sightless eyes before she steps up to establish a long term care facility for Uchiha that couldn't care for themselves-regardless of age.
It gets pushback.
A lot of what Akane does in the days that follow Misakis death gets pushback. Madara is reluctant to sit on the knowledge of the creatures existence and keep it on a need to know basis, which means informing the elders and no one else. The elders are happy enough to oblige, addicted to the illusion of power as they are, they help her reassure Madara that he's doing the right thing.
Then they turn around and call her crazy when Akane asks them for access to all the clan records and to create a specialized team to examine the particulars of all missions records that so much as mentioned the Senju.
Akane doesn't have to go to bat for it though-because Izuna does.
She knows Izuna has taken knowledge of having been compromised badly-not that it was news any shinobi would have taken with any grace, let alone the heir apparent to the Uchiha clan. It doesn't help that he has a Magenkyo and Uchiha have always believed themselves above such genjutsu. Not all mind techniques-there were plenty of mission records of Uchihas falling victim to the odd stealthy Yamanaka. But no other genjutsu had ever managed to get past their kekkei genkai. Not that they were sure it had been a genjutsu-but they weren't sure it hadn't been either.
Akane figures it's part of why the elders are so eager to keep it a secret-bruised egos and paranoia. The Uchiha reputation as the most powerful shinobi in fire country are only contested by the Senju-and even then mostly on a case by case basis. They are still the first choice for the majority of the nobility in Fire country. Word getting out about someone overpowering one of the most powerful Uchiha the clan had, potentially with genjutsu of all things…well, it wouldn't do their reputation any good.
At least Izuna manages to channel his fury and what Akane quietly suspected to be humiliation into the investigation. There's so much to shift through Akane ultimately ends up asking the task force to concentrate on any secret missions that mentioned the Senju and anything related to any attempts for both clans to communicate civilly going awry.
No one so much as questions why Akane gives orders with the same authority as the clan heir despite no longer having any relationship with the main line, or so much as having achieved the rank of captain for a shinobi squad. She's not sure how much of it is the urgency of the situation and Akane having been both the one to identify it-and step up to handle it, and how much it's actual trust built over the years with her efforts and reputation. Maybe Madara or Izuna have long instructed other Uchiha to take her orders on anything regarding the ceasefire as their own, and she wouldn't receive the same level of obedience if she tried her hand on anything to do with the field or shinobi on missions.
Ultimately, Akane doesn't really care how or why she's been given point on the current ceasefire-she just cares that it gives her the power to push for the future she so desperately wants. It's almost funny that out of all the knowledge she'd gathered over her lifetime as Samantha, it's the petty interpersonal politics that often prove most useful.
She'd rented a chair in a salon full of both catty two faced snobs and well meaning but oblivious sweethearts. It had been hard to tell them apart at first-but Akane had taken those hard earned lessons to heart. Then there had been being captain of a local volleyball team, figuring out logistics had been so much easier than managing all of the personalities and attitudes on the team. There were pretty much two types of players-those who took the game far too seriously, and those who didn't take it seriously at all. It had been like herding cats, but Samantha had managed well enough-eventually. What took the cake was probably hosting trivia nights at her favorite bar. Belligerent drunks, bossy know it alls, and the belligerent drunk know it alls. Samantha had considered brokering peace between two captains after they'd both slept with the same woman, one of the captain's fiancée, one Halloween, a genuine miracle. There may have been a lot of tension whenever they were both within ten feet of each other but at least she'd put an end to the bloodshed and trivia was still played every Thursday.
Akane had learned to work around people being a pain in her ass, and even occasionally made those attempts to obstruct her work in her favor back in her last life.
A perfect example was the gathering of Lineage socialites that had had taken up Misaki's death as the perfect tool to crucify her and try to get her exiled from the clan. Their careful elegant doublespeak that blatantly implied Akane had planned Misakis assasination in a bid to reclaim her throne as Madaras fiancé was almost cute. All Akane had to do was smile and ask why, if they were all such good friends who dearly loved and missed Misaki, Akane had to be the one to step up and care for her only living family-a brother she had loved dearly and even become a shinobi for to support in the first place.
The following silence had been exquisite, on her end at least. Akane then pressured them into donating time and funds to her new venture because she planned to make them pay through the nose for the insult. She was so tired of being magnanimous in the face of lineage shinobi making her life more difficult than it had to be, but it would hardly help her cause if she gained a reputation for being petty and concerned about personal vengeance when she planned to give her all in persuading the clan to give up vengeance on the Senju.
Most people found it hard to trust blatant hypocrites.
Misaki was a sore spot though.
Akane had been spared taking up an active leadership role in the war mostly because her brothers were overprotective and had long convinced Daiki-her first real squad captain, to keep any complimentary comments about her work on the field to himself. Uchiha command structures were largely merit based and squad captains were expected to highlight their successors or anyone they felt had leadership potential in their after action reports to the clan. Unlike the clan social structures where lineage prestige and an active Sharingan were hard currencies-the field was a different beast entirely. It wasn't that lineage shinobi didn't do better, considering they typically had Sharingans, better training, and much more resources-but not every well trained shinobi had leadership skills.
They could be trained for it as well of course, but that took time and frankly speaking, if a shinobi had made it to senior warrior status without any, no one was actually surprised. Survival was already so much to ask of Uchihas who had been fighting for their lives before they'd been alive an entire decade. Being shinobi-they were taught danger assessments, keeping calm in a crisis, especially considering that every battle was technically a crisis, and reaching mission objectives above all. Anything else was considered nice-but not exactly necessary.
Paradoxically-field leaders were flagged young and pushed into leadership positions at the first opportunity. By Akanes third year on the field and lack of recommendation to become her squad vice captain, the first step in the clan command structure towards captaincy-many shinobi had simply assumed Akane was another great warrior who didn't necessarily keep her head straight enough to care for others on the field.
It wasn't true-and Akane was vice captain of her squad in all but name, but she had been grateful to go along with the ruse. It wasn't terribly noble-but Akane could barely tolerate the constant death she meted out. She had never wanted to know what it would cost her to ultimately be responsible for sending someone to their death.
Of course the one time she'd decided to be the leader as a warrior in the same way she so often was in the clan, she'd gotten a clan member killed-so maybe Akane had an over inflated opinion of herself as a leader when it came to the field.
She planned to stick to what she knew-which was managing people and working her way towards her carefully chosen goals. Konoha was getting closer and closer. Madara had approached her and hinted to the idea, clearly trying to sound her out.
Akane had promised her support immediately. Madara had been surprised, which shouldn't be surprising, considering the near universal loathing Uchihas had for Senju-but Akane had been under the impression that her actions spoke for themselves.
Actions like holding a second meeting with a Senju diplomatic delegation and comparing information on all attempts at communication the clans had made over the years. Some seemed to be logically contentious-but not a small amount were absurd. Blatant misinformation on both sides and a distressing amount of secret missions issued that were in no way tactically sound, but heightened the hatred between the clans.
It was heartbreaking. Hundreds of years of Uchiha and Senju killing each other because of one motherfucker that just wouldn't die.
It made Akane double down harder on pushing the clan towards peace-even if she was struggling to explain to Madara why he couldn't announce any of the evidence they'd found of outside interference in their war to the rest of the clan at large when that information was certainly key to changing the clans current sentiments on the Senju.
Akane couldn't always put her insights into words-but she knew it still wasn't the time to declare the creature's existence. Misaki's death was too fresh, the last battle between the Uchiha and Senju too recent. They needed to buy time. They needed to discover the extent of the creatures machinations, they needed the ceasefire to exist longer than the six months on record. They need to establish at least a precarious balance between the Uchiha's hatred of the Senju and their hopes for a better future for the clan.
Akane knows it sounds bad when she can only think of describing it as pushing the clan's lower limit for peace with the Senju just beyond its limit, and that's not exactly what she's doing-although it kind of is. She knows, almost instinctively, that that's when it will do the most good to release the news. While all that temper and bubbling hatred has a new target and bridges between the two clans will be easier to build, having a shared target to direct new and old grief.
Then the Senju send the offer of a bride.
No one asks Akane what she thinks of the move, but if Akane could kiss whatever Senju came up with it-she gladly would.
It was the perfect first step.
It was even more perfect when Izuna decided he wanted to be the one with the Senju bride. Akane can admit she hadn't seen that coming-but Izuna Uchihas betrothal to Touka Senju stirs up the hornets nest of resentment in the clan just like Akane had wanted.
The idea of a political marriage to begin an alliance invites the logical next step-peace with their sworn enemies.
Akane gives a few speeches. She doesn't have to lie or embellish a thing. She is so very sick of war and she yearns for a better future for the Uchiha with an almost physical ache. All she has to do is stay on message and 'encourage' key Uchiha with influence in the clan to do the same. She splits it up into thirds-one part charismatic yet naive young people yearning for a better future, one part active shinobi tired of fighting and losing their comrades, and one part bitter old people who refuse the idea on principle but slowly come around in an inadvertently public manner. Her mothers help in choosing her key fellow clansmen is invaluable.
It's not exactly a smooth journey-but Akane knows her way around the clan after living in it for so long. Moreover-she knows exactly what she needs to get ahead of, the assasination of the majority her nieces generation is probably the biggest incident they have to navigate. Akane had set up a counseling group for grieving parents about the second she received news of the possible engagement between Touka and Izuna. She'd also had Ryota attend and share his grief about his first wife and unborn child. It wasn't hard for someone like Ryota-Uchiha royalty that he was for all accounts, to gain the ear and sympathy of his fellow group members.
Akane had long convinced Ryota peace was an option worth fighting for-but she was having him keep that sentiment to himself until after the creatures existence was announced-probably a while after the creatures existence was announced-picking their moment was imperative.
It was also manipulative as all hell, which didn't make Akane feel great about herself, but it was the steadiest path she could see towards peace and eventually-Konoha.
It's hard not to feel like a zealot sometimes. Akane knows she's fixated on Konoha, holding the village as true north instead of actually questioning all that she does in its name. But she is so-so tired of war. She's so tired of loss-she lived in pain every day of her current life long before her temporary death, crippling, and even current invisible disability of occasionally debilitating pain.
It's taken everything she had not to become completely numb in the face of everything she's been through in her current life and Akane is beginning to worry she'll just wake up one day and won't have enough left to give.
Akane has charred out parts of herself in service of her clan and coming back alive to her family. But she never wants to give up the part of her that cares. She's finally starting to understand that she shouldn't fear paying the cost for overseeing all she does, all the power that she can wield. What she fears now, with the lesson of Misaki's death, is the thought of it costing nothing at all.
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Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates, and happy holidays for anyone who observes another holiday this winter season. Here's a present because Christmas is a thing for me.
We are pretty much coming to a close of the pre konoha arc and I am hype y'all. Like I just realized-I've pretty much covered 20 yrs of Uchiha-Senju war in like twenty five chapters lol. But next up we have our first Senju POV and I am so excited. I'll be updating like regular on Monday as this is more bonus chapter instead of weekly chapter early and I cant wait to hear what y'all think of the story so far!