A/N: Hello and welcome to the eleventh installment of Home! To anyone waiting for an update...depression is a killer on your motivations! I wish I were better already, but therapy takes time! I am sorry to keep you on hold for MONTHS! I've been working hard on this entry for a while and catching up on all that I haven't watched yet(Naruto-wise). This chapter will take place quite some time after the declaration of the 4th War and the beginnings of preparation for it. I appreciate any kind words or constructive reviews you've sent my way, they really make a girl's heart grow! Updates will take quite some time...you know, adulting. With that said, this fic is loosely based on the events of Naruto, Shipuuden, and eventually Boruto(ish). I don't own any of this awesome universe, just Akuri. Present tense scenes will be noted with an underlined heading like this: X Naruto X. Flashbacks will be identified by a heading like this: Akuri (The series of unfortunate bao buns). The current character's dreams, thoughts, and also words of emphasis will be Italicized. I review my work before it is published and it also goes through my editor - my dog! Please forgive any mistakes he missed! Thanks for reading!


Sasuke (Coping)

Sasuke! Sasuke, help me! It hurts so badly! My twin's screams of agony began to echo in my head as I fell into my fighting stance to perform another series of blows on the training "dummy" I'd formed out of a very limb-y tree. I drew in a deep breath to quell the madness in my mind, trying desperately to ward off my sister's last utterance.

"HELP ME!"

With a heavy sigh, I heavily dropped onto the dew-wet grass and took a healthy swallow of the water canteen I toted with me to the field that night for training. I gazed heavenward to admire the sight of the changing sky, and blinked away the weariness. Each time I closed my eyes, the imagery of my sister's unconscious form burning under the ebony flames our elder brother called forth flickered behind my lids, the memory more painful than any other that I stored in my mind. Sleep was a scarce visitor and I didn't mind it so much; my evenings were more focused on honing all of the new skills I attained from reaching my life's first true goal, rather than dreaming of the ashes that swirled away in the breeze where my sister had been moments before the flames descended upon her. The most tumultuous part of the memory that played like a broken record was the anguish I could see plainly on the eldest of the three of us when Akuri slammed into my side on the battlefield, forcing me out of the way of the onyx flames hurdling toward me. I hadn't seen an emotion like that on my brother's face since we were small and we almost lost my twin halfway through winter; Itachi's dark eyes straining as he struggled to hide the pain it caused him to watch her struggle to simply breathe.

"He never meant to kill her...it was an accident."

The mantras I held onto were the words Madara shared about my siblings' fate and they drew forth a different brand of hatred for the village I'd once called home, one I'd never felt before. His words echoed again and I steeled myself for a moment, feeling the lump of emotion well up in the back of my throat. Itachi had acted out of duty to our home, following the orders of the village superiors and slaughtering our family. Akuri perished in the conflict I'd spent my whole life preparing for, which had all only been for the benefit of Konoha.

The village killed my mother and my father, my brother and my sister...I'm going to make Konoha pay for everything they took from me.

With the resolve fresh in my mind, I stood once more and trekked to the closest tea house. Taka's concerns of my location or wellbeing were thrown to the wind as I settled on the porch of a small hut and ordered a hot spruce and mint rooibos with a dollop of honey drizzled in. I spent long minutes savoring the hot-cool-sweet flavor of the beverage once it had been offered by the spry young man serving the tea house patrons. I had begun drinking tea as though paying an homage to the person I held most dear, and it made me feel so bittersweet. As the brewed leaf-water entered my body with it's tinges of natural sweet, I knew my sister would have truly enjoyed it; but I wished more than ever that she were here to enjoy it with me. I could imagine her hum of satisfaction with the first sip, or the wrinkle of her nose if the tea had been over-steeped or not doctored with enough honey. With a humorless chuckle, I raised the ceramic mug to the air before me in a toast to my late womb-mate, my heart squeezing as I imagined her smiling and clinking our glasses.

"To you, sis," I murmured, choking back the rest of the words that begged to spew about Akuri. To squelch them further, I took a painfully warm chug of the fragrant rooibos I'd ordered. While I continued to sip the sweet beverage, my mind wandered to safer ways I could strengthen my superior defense and my heart squeezed again at the memory of my sister displaying her own. She'd shown me one night after her evening cup of tea, the humanoid figure of chakra blooming all around her and forming the stature of a female fighter.

Of course your Susanoo would be a brilliant white...there was never a touch of darkness in your soul, sis.

Once I'd finished the tea and paid the server, I stood from my stoop and began the journey back to where I knew my trio of cohorts awaited my return. I shuddered at the thought of Karin's eager expression, her eyes misted over and cheeks flush with what I knew to be arousal or desire. There was something so terribly off-putting by her advances that made me yearn for the early days at the academy where I was fawned over by many female classmates, their desires not quite as unsettling as they displayed them. My heart squeezed tightly at the thought of Sakura, the only girl from back home that held space in my mind despite how unwanted the very thoughts themselves were. The train of thought came to a screeching halt as Karin's cawing voice greeted me at the door.

"Sasuke!" She squealed, lithe arms encircling my shoulders as she crushed our bodies together. I could feel her body curve to press her breasts firmly against my chest. "I'm so glad to see you back safe and sound!"

Suigetsu's chuckle at the exchange was enough to make me want to shrug the clingy redhead from me. I allowed myself to act upon the desire, gently disengaging from her affectionate embrace to stride forward and settle down at the chair against the back wall of the abandoned hut we stayed in for the evening. I cleared my throat to catch their attention once my mind had been made up about our next course of action. The members of Taka surrounded me when they realized I was ready to deliver instructions.

X Akuri (Sweet dreams are made of these)

"Keep sleeping...I'll bet your dreams are what's making you smile like that."

The deep rumbling outside of my slumber wasn't urgent enough to pull me from the joys of my dreamscape, the seemingly real scent of fresh baby not far below my nose and the giggles I could swear I heard from my son and his father in the distance being too much to dismiss. My focus was restored on the cooing blonde settled in my lap, her chubby hands curled around my fingertips squeezing and pulling deftly at my hands brought my half-smile to a full blown grin.

"That's my girl, Miko," I praised her, pressing a nuzzling kiss to the crown of her downy-soft head and stroking her palms with my thumbs as I adjusted the way our fingers tangled. I glanced down at the two of us more closely to realize that yet another Uzumaki was going to join our family in the near future, the crest of my belly seemingly nearer to the middle of my gestation than the beginning. The very sight brought me into a world of elation I hadn't felt since I was small.

"'Kuri," Naruto's voice only added to the reverence I was feeling in the moment, the tall blond strutting into focus with a black-haired boy aloft on his broad shoulders. "Do you and Mikoto want to scope out the spot we picked? A certain someone really thought his mom would like it."

The blue-eyed boy, no older than five, folded his arms across his father's shock of blond and rested his chin on the largest crease before grinning with all the energy his father carried in our younger years. His pride was evident and I felt love flood every cell I had. For the briefest of moments, I wondered if this was what my mother felt when she was alive and any of us took the chance to show her our affections. The emotions that ran through my blood told me that this had to at least be an inkling of an indicator of how it made her feel.

"Help me up so we can take a look?" I asked, gazing up into the cerulean pools that I'd adored for many years. Naruto knelt down to secure one arm around me to lift me directly onto my feet, keeping our son secured with the other and allowing me to keep our daughter safely in my hold. His strong hand never left me, resting lightly at the center of my back dotingly as I carried our next child and I loved him all the more for it. I leaned up on my toes to kiss his cheek after bidding him a quiet thanks just below his ear.

"Can't leave our girls down in the dirt," Naruto reassured warmly, fingertips wiggling to lightly scratch the middle of my back before relaxing and gently guiding me down a dirt path to our left. I readjusted my hold on the infant in my grasp, turning her to face the scenery and experience the warm breeze during the late springtime of our village for herself. "Right Taj?"

Tajima nodded emphatically from his perch, cobalt irises glittering with adoration for his family. His little body seemed to vibrate with excitement as our destination became clear. A large blue outdoors blanket was splayed in the middle of a field that was painted with wildflowers of varying degrees of white, red, and purple. In the center of that blanket, a tan wicker picnic basket was placed and I allowed Naruto to help me through the field toward our lunch spot.

"It's absolutely beautiful," I told them, stopping to do a slow full circle on the blanket once I'd removed my clogs. "Isn't it, Miko? Your brother picks the best spots for lunch, huh?"

Our small family settled comfortably together on the large blanket, Naruto eagerly taking his daughter to free my hands to dole out the packed meals. Despite growing up without a father of his own, the exceptional Genin fell into fatherhood with what seemed to be a practiced ease. The love that glittered in his eyes as those strong hands held the delicate form of our eight month old daughter was completely unmatched than any I'd seen outside of my family.

"Hey! Room for a few more?"

The voice calling out the question belonged to my sister in-law, the pink-haired medical nin carefully making her way over to our picnic with Sasuke in tow. Each of them carried a toddler on a hip and my heart swelled, taking in the image of my twin and his wife as they brought their own boy-and-girl set down to us. Eiko and Botan were the most laid-back toddlers I'd ever seen and they stole the hearts of every person that laid their unsuspecting eyes on the pair. Botan's face resembled his father's as though a mirror had been placed before Sasuke, the difference being his son's nearly-glowing seafoam green eyes. My niece looked like the perfect combination of her parents - Sakura's blush-pink hair and billboard-esque forehead, her dainty nose and cupid's bow lips paired with Sasuke's intense ebony stare and pointed chin made for a rather angelic mixture.

"Auntie!" Tajima's squeal pulled me from my thoughts, his stocky little body racing over to his favorite relative to bombard her with the affections I knew he wanted to shower her with. Sakura joyously lifted her nephew onto her unoccupied hip to squeeze him into a hug, the boy proudly boasting to her, "I picked the spot, come look!"

As our enlarged family picnic began to commence and our meal shared, I felt an ominous prickle along the back of my neck as the hair stood on end as though a specter of sorts loomed nearby. My right hand flexed when I thought about the decorative pin keeping my hair swept from my nape as it was a disguised ninja tool - a very practical and thoughtful gift that Tenten had presented to us at our wedding. My eyes flitted about our circle and no one seemed to sense the haunting stare I seemed to be feeling, which only added to my now-growing suspicions. Was this even real? When were we wed? When was Tajima's birthday? This couldn't be right...

My heart's beats picked up to a more frantic pace and I struggled to get to my feet in an attempt to free myself from wherever this was. What kept me still felt like a heavy palm pressing my shoulder but my eyes could detect no such thing and my disquiet grew considerably. Panic began to bubble under my skin and goad relentlessly against my seams, like I would burst.

"It's not time yet, you need to keep recovering," the baritone that hummed in my ears was both unfamiliar and soothing, "I'll wake you when I need you..."

It felt like a fog shrouded the barrier of my brain and began to penetrate it, pressuring my senses into a trancelike state. Naruto's strong arm coiled around me and I melted as his smiling lips pressed to my own, the kiss sealing me into the reverie despite all of the alarms I had going off. This moment was where I could happily die and I found the desire to leave it slipping away.

X Naruto X

"You...knew Akuri's mother?"

"Mikoto and I were friends, before I left to go have you, I saw her on the way out. She had her son in a carrier on her back and offered to let me hold her sleeping baby girl for just a moment," Kushina explained with a smile, but tilted her head in question. "Tell me about Akuri. Who is she to you?"

"She's..." I quashed the feelings that rose up within before I continued, blinking away the tears that demanded to form. "I love her, more than anyone I've ever loved before. And, not only that, she almost made me a father."

My mother's ethereal hands were stroking away the salty streams roaring down my cheeks in the instant they came, eventually just giving up to hold me close to her. The comfort her arms provided me were second to none and I never wanted to be without her again, but knew our time couldn't last an eternity as I wished. Her loving voice questioned my tears and my explanation brought her to shed her own alongside me, the two of us clutching each other close. I don't know which portion cut her so deep - the loss of my son being the news he'd ever existed or my partner's departure in search of vengeance.

"I just feel so lost without her," I admitted, "she's felt like my home since I was little. Like my soulmate, ya know? She's who I missed when I went to go train with Jiraiya, I just wanted to see her so badly...now she's on her own journey. And I'm scared that she's not going to be the same when she gets home...I'm so uncertain of the path she's walking down now."

"If she feels the way about you that I felt about your dad the moment we knew about you, she will continue to be your home," Kushina murmured softly, offering a warm smile "sometimes we handle grief differently, it sounds like she's not quite over the loss either...trust in your heart that she will love you just the same. If she's your soulmate, it was probably a hard choice for her to make to leave like that...did she leave anything for you?"

"I bought her an amethyst necklace," I answered the prompt, smiling at the memorable conversation I'd held with the shop owner, "she left that with a note with the message that she'd 'make things right'."

"What could that mean?" Kushina's head tilted to the side with her question, fiery locks falling across her shoulder and front. At her confused expression, I spent a few moments of our time explaining the fall of the Uchiha. My mother's face did not hide the horror she must have felt at the discovery of the clan's demise, tears pricking her eyes at the mention of Akuri's mother, Mikoto. "I couldn't imagine carrying around that sort of burden...so much hate and pain."

"That's why I'm so afraid," I explained, "what if she's seeking vengeance for it all? Will she come back so broken that I can't help her? What if...I don't get her back from this road she's on? I don't know if I'll ever find this kind of love with anyone else...I would kill for her, I would die for her. She's the biggest reason I came home and she's why I want to become stronger. I want..."

Kushina's warm and spiritual hand on my own was enough ton persuade me to continue my declaration, my entirety feeling rejuvenated to the max, or damn near.

"I want to make her my wife and restore our clan," I admitted tearfully, "I am petrified that she will become as cold and hard as her brother. I can't lose her or our bond. She is the most important person in the world to me...she loved me at my most unlovable and she will always be more than something to me!"

Kushina's crimson hair swayed and fell across her back as she got to her feet, standing tall with the pride of our entire heritage.

"We oughta get this fox under our fist, then," she declared proudly, blue eyes brimming. "I have enough chakra left to restrain him...all you have to do is separate his chakra from his physical form and you'll be able to draw from him whenever you should need."

Golden chains sprung forth from her green-dress-covered torso, a strained smile tugging the red-haired kunoichi's features. I watched them encircle the fox, his lips pulling back to reveal a truly resentful snarl and release a roar as he was pinned down. My mother's praise and prayer were enough to push me forward to claim the excessively evil chakra as my own. I wished with everything that I had that Akuri was here with me to witness the taming of this beast that drew forth so much hateful fear. When the ordeal was over, we faced one another in the pseudo-space that had to be my soul.

"I don't have much time left, though your father made sure to give me more time with you," Kushina sadly murmured, cerulean eyes locking with my own with a sorrowful tinge. "But with what I have, I want to say thank you. Thank you with all of my heart for making me a mother, for almost making me a grandmother...for being more than every dream I ever had about you. I love you with more words than I can ever say. You will find your love again, my dear...you are too precious to pass up!"

Our loving sentiments passed to one another across the space of m subconscious and the emotions behind them were very clearly felt by both parties, tears glistening in my mother's eyes as she faded from my visceral sight. My resolve fell into place and began to cement as I felt the power of the Ninetails and my mother's deep love surging through me.

I would find Akuri and make her mine again, no matter the cost.

X Akuri X

"How do you feel?" The deep voice rumbled, my vision darkened and all my other senses heightened. I reached up to feel dampened fabric, which I assumed to be bandages.

"My head hurts," I admitted, scrubbing both hands over my sore temples and brows. "Can I take this off? I can't see."

"Not yet...and be silent," the male voice commanded, my lips sealing into a scowling line at the order, "you wouldn't want your opponent to hear you, would you?"

At the completion of the rumbling sentence, I felt a very firm fist crunch into my jaw and my form was spun out of my comfortable orientation. I wanted to desperately to yelp at the sharpness of the pain, but instead rolled into the fall and landed on my bare feet. My hands instinctively went up to pull at the bandages obscuring my full sight.

"Ah, ah," the voice chided within the back of my mind, my fingers halting as they reached the cusp of my head wrappings. "This is a blind contest, princess."

"Princess..?" I mumbled aloud in response.

"You are the last Uchiha daughter, are you not?" They did not wait long for an answer, booming in my head with his next suggestion "it would make you the Uchiha princess, girl. Prove to me you deserve the title, Akuri."

I took the moment to listen for my enemy's breathing and feel the vibrations through the sandy flooring for their movement. When I heard the grains shift to my right, I ducked down low and activated my Sharingan to capture a chakra signature through the cloth. I could see what could only be a humanoid figure and my defenses rose considerably at the thought of combat. My left fist solidified into a rock within fractions of a second and I jabbed forward strongly, knuckles grazing what I knew would be their abdomen with what my eyes could see. When I didn't feel the connect, I began to release my hand from the earthy bulwark and began scanning the battlefield hastily.

Their blue-purple form flitted to a new spot outside of my range when my other senses detected them, my instincts kicking in hard enough to whirl around and shield my face with the slowly crumbling sediment on my left mitt. Thankfully, the defensive move paid off as a powerful fist darted toward me and I heard a pained grunt as their knuckles met the rock guarding me. My brows furrowed beneath the eye-covering as the lithe form retreated before weaving signs that I couldn't discern with their body's chakra cloak in the way of the actual signing.

I shifted into high gear as a burst of hot air rushed past my left ear, eyes darting to each chakra missile fired in my direction and body contorting to evade what I could only guess would have been a severe burn. When the barrage ended, I began to sign for my own flaming jutsu and reared back to inhale a ghastly amount of air. Behind the bloodied rags over my eyes, I could see my indigo target's head whipping about to locate me and I expelled the fire raging in my lungs.

I'll burn you to ash! I silently threatened, pupils zeroing in on the rapidly shifting figure as it came at me once more.

The rush of fire that exploded at my front impeded my opponent's charge, evidenced by the stumble and scrape against the soft ground and their deep utterance of pain. Their footsteps indicated that the job wasn't done and I readied for the encroaching strike. Our fists and bows met blow for blow, kicks colliding at the shin and blows meeting violently. With chakra augmenting my strike, I delivered a vicious uppercut and both felt and heard their body whirl in the force of it. A stray foot came upwards and nailed my forehead over the right brow. I felt blood trickle down under the wrappings over my eyes with the final impact and heard their hasty retreat.

Male, not too much bigger than me. I deduced upon my known radius and my guesstimated foe's height. So strong...I may have to use my Susano'o...oh well. Good practice, yeah?

Without much of a rest, another heard but unseen strike came for my shoulders and I evaded with barely enough clearance to save my head. Once I glanced up at them and discerned their exact position, a grin spread across my lips as I shifted my enhanced eyes into next gear to allow for the celestial being to draw it's life force from my chakra pool.

"How interesting..." the rumble mused in my temple. "Crush him with that, princess."

"Oh, I plan on it," I boasted aloud as a cage formed around me as the ultimate defense.

My enemy's strikes were nearly absorbed by my spiritual guardian, her impervious armor accepting no damage. I chuckled darkly and raised my fist to drop it down harshly on my foe with the strength of the Susano'o. When I heard nothing, I began to scan for their presence once more. They spent only mere moments launching themselves at my chakra defensemen before deciding that a head-on attack in my sights wasn't viable. I remained on guard as they struck the exterior of my shell with what I could only hear and assume to be multiple jutsu, my focus holding until the most recent declaration.

"Chidori!" I heard ring clearly, my mind losing it's grip on the focus that went into maintaining my ethereal champion and my senses dulling at the voice that called down to the depths of who I was.

Sasuke..?

A very jarring, gutting strike to my ribcage and a deafening crunch brought me to my knees for but a moment as the electricity coursing through me subsided. I knew bones had broken and either a resplendent rebuttal or a daring escape had to be my next coarse of action or I'd lose. Despite the stinging sensation, I stood and braced myself for another oncoming onslaught of fists. Whomever was assaulting, my twin or otherwise, refused to let up on their barrage any time soon and I winced. My forearms could only take so much more before another bone would suffer the consequences. I darted as far away as I could in our limited space to recoup. The only thing I could do to ensure my survival on this terrain was to convince who I thought was my twin or to end this here and now.

I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?

My right hand darted upward to wrench the bloodied cotton drawn across my eyes away. In the instant, I felt my muscles seize up.

"You didn't play by the rules," the rumble echoed loudly through my skull and I made fists in the hair draped over my ears. "I can't trust you to listen...only him. Goodnight again, princess."

"NO!" I refuted as loudly as I could.

Consciousness was bodily ripped from me once again and I felt my form cradled in some sort of sweet casing. I began to scream for the ones I begged to come free me before I went under once again.

"Naruto!" I shrieked from the pod before I began to lose what I had left of my awareness, "S..Sas...Sasuke!"

Come get me out of here...please!

My reality went completely dark, the dream I had before I was released from my pod-like captivity surfacing started to manifest.