Disclaimer: I own the OCs in this fic, the rest is Masashi Kishomoto's. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Character age:

Akane, Itachi: 18

Naruto, Sasuke: 13

Shisui: 22

Kakashi: 27

"The ritual fixed the connection between you and I that was damaged when the Sandaime summoned the Shinigami," oji-chan explained to me with a wave of his hand. "That's not what I wanted to talk about."

"I've just filled you in on what you missed, so my identity crisis I presume?" He nodded and didn't hide the hint of worry in his eyes. Oji-chan was always worry about my mental health and I couldn't blame him. He worried about it more than me, and even though I usually knew when and how to ask for help, he was there in the moments I was pushing myself too hard or when I was completely lost. "I...I don't know oji-chan, I've seen and lived the death of five Yureis and ever since I don't...I don't know who I am. It's my past life that made me change things, yet I just...somehow, I think that the Resistance made Sasaki Akane disappear a little bit more everyday. When I was in Konoha it was easier in a way, because it was the last place I was in, but here...I'm glad, I really am glad to help this time around, because I care about these people too, because even if I wanted to at first I don't want to run from there anymore but...This shinobi part of me..." I grasped my shirt where my heart was and furrowed my brows. "I don't want them to see it. I hated that part of me and..."

"Past tense," he interrupted me, "past tense. You don't hate it anymore then?"

"I...I don't like the idea of fighting and how the shinobi world seems to never be able to talk things out, I still hate what it does to people mentally speaking but...the Resistance made me see a point in it. We can't always talk, and sometimes I even surprise myself liking the thrill of the fight and...oji-chan, recently I've enjoyed getting hurt because it reminds me I'm still alive I..." I sighed deeply. Tensui-san was right, the ritual does mess with your mind pretty badly.

"You're alive Akane, and the world around you is as real as your past life was. Never forget that or it might lead you to do bad things to others around you," he warned me in a stern voice, blue eyes staring intensively at me. "Be careful of the people around you and how you treat them. Acting accordingly to your mission in the Resistance is fine, but treating them as if they were not the people you knew in your past life, as if they were just an illusion won't get you anywhere except your own isolation." How right he was...the episode I had in Konoha was sadly still playing in my mind. "As for you not wanting them to see the kunoichi side of you...I know you know why exactly you hate that part of your life, but I want you to say it out loud. There's way too many things you've kept for yourself for so long, I won't repeat it to anyone or judge you."

"You're my therapist to now?" He didn't laugh at my sarcasm, my good old defense mechanism when it was too personal. I talked a little bit about it to old Sasuke but...well. "I...hate it for the exact same reason why I never mention I have a kekkai genkai. Because of Dad, because I want nothing to do with him. Kiri was his village and everybody know he's my father, everybody told me when I was younger how Fubuki would have been a better weapon for Kiri, how he would have improved faster than me. I hate it, I don't want them, Konoha, to know because I'm ashamed of that man being my father and what it led me to. I'm ashamed of myself for failing at defecting when I was a child, I'm ashamed of submitting to Yagura to protect Dai and Mangetsu on my fifth attempt at leaving that place, I'm ashamed I've been a burden when six months after that as a punishment Yagura sent many oinin after us and how I couldn't do anything but being protected because my shinbone was sticking out of my leg." I was out of breath but I kept going. "I'm ashamed of the fact that I took part in Yagura's sick surviving game twice, I'm ashamed of the fact that I'm worse than trash because I've already killed some of my comrades to save my own skin. Oji-chan, there are times I'm ashamed of myself because I'm terrified of turning like my old man."

"Akane, you won't turn like him, because unlike Ushio, you have people who'll notice your weird behavior before it's too late. Unlike me and Kushina, your friends in Kiri wouldn't hesitate to stop you before you do anything. I think it's an awful thing to being able to stop a friend without a second thought, but there are times where it's the best quality you can have." I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face. "And you need to realize something. You ran away from that part of you in your past life and had a clear distinction between Uzumaki and Sasaki. Here? Akane, you've changed and you know it. Why don't you see that you don't need to separate the two anymore?"

"What? But..."

"Your past life forged you and now you have a reason to be a shinobi, to fight. You want to make Kiri a better place and be proud of being from there, don't you? It's been five years Akane, stop convincing yourself than you're a better person in Konoha as a civilian, stop going back to that thought because it's security to you, because you know there are people over there who are strong enough to do what you do today."

"I don't do that!" I snapped at him and he glared heavily at me. "I've killed some of my own clansmen, children! I'm trying to live with that burden and to cope with it!"

"Yet, your teammates here have helped you, or have you forgotten that?" I opened my mouth but he raised his hand to shut me up. "No, you listen to me now. You keep saying you're a coward, and even if you've proved the opposite in the past years, you still think it and seek Konoha's safety. I'm sorry to tell you, but you're a kunoichi, and if you don't start assuming it once and for all in front of the whole world, fully assuming it and taking responsibilities for everything you've done, then nothing gives you the right to scold Sasuke-kun like you did!" He was angry, and I had nothing to say back. I had a lump in my throat though, and I knew it was tears. "Don't you dare crying about what I'm telling you Akane, you're fully aware of all this but you keep pretending you can keep these two different life styles. You can't. Not anymore. You'll never be able to be a little nobody anymore, to pretend you're average because you're not. You're one of the Swordsmen, you're one of the best spy the probably Fifth Mizukage has at her disposal and you're fully aware that it will probably be you against Yagura in the end because of the Sanbi and these Uzumaki summons you got in Uzushio. It's okay to be ashamed, you should be ashamed, it proves you're still human and not just another broken soul that fully turned into a weapon. Do you think I was fine when I became the Hokage? I killed a thousand Iwa shinobi and even now that I'm technically dead, I'm ashamed and still feel guilty about it. You're scared of what people in Konoha would think of you, but they're shinobi too. And even if they don't like it, your teammates here know and won't hold it against you. Are you ashamed of them too?"

"NO!" I screamed at him with wide and frantic eyes. "I'm not ashamed of them!"

"Yet, when you say you're ashamed of your time in Kiri, you're implying you're ashamed of them too. Akane, I love you like my own daughter, but you need to understand that you'll never walk out of this, and that you need to stop hiding yourself when you're with Shisui-kun, Itachi-kun or Naruto, even your own mother. You've asked Sasuke-kun to tell you who was Sasuke, then I'm taking the liberty to tell you who is Akane. It's a girl who was forced to be a kunoichi in a place she hated and that reminded her of her father. It's a girl who ran and ignored the shinobi world. It's a woman who decided to go to Konoha to have a good place to raise her children, and thus helped the shinobi by becoming a Seal Master. It's a woman who unconsciously succeeded in using the full potential of a powerful Uzumaki kinjutsu and who changed the course of things. It's a woman who decided to stop running because she knew she wasn't as weak as she thought she was, physically and mentally. It's a woman who doesn't want people to go through the same things she went through, who wants to make the place she was born a better place instead of running from it. It's a woman who desperately wants to protect the changes she made and thinks she can do it by keeping some people in the dark even if it hurt them. I'm sorry to tell you, but to me it sounds like someone who've experienced the worst the shinobi world can do to people and who genuinely wants to change it. I know you hate it, and even if you don't see it yourself, I see the Will of Fire, and the will to make a fair world, starting by Kiri. That you want it or not, you took something you hated and made it into something that can help. You've done good in the wrong you've done, it's what gets the best shinobi going. It's time you see it to. It's time you forgive yourself and starts trying to create a new future and not just a replica of the one you once had."

"I'm already doing that!" He raised a brow.

"Have you, really, or did you convince yourself you were doing it so that you didn't have to grieve?"

"Grieve? Who?" His eyes became soft, even if I knew there was a hint of pity in them that made me sick to the stomach because it made me feel like a silly child.

"Yourself. Did you properly mourn yourself, or did you run again?"

This time, I cried. I cried like a child because he just spat the truth I had been avoiding for the past five years right into my face.

There was a difference between knowing something and accepting it, and as oji-chan was hugging me tightly, I realized it was time for me to finally mourn my past life once and for all.

Being a Yurei was a curse in disguise, a blessed curse in a way. It was time for me to make it a real blessing.

Huh…

How hard was it for the past Yureis with the Claw to go through this if they didn't have someone to set their record straight?

"Oh my...Haku? What happened to your lip?"

"Ah, I was at the hideout and Sasuke-kun wanted to train." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Did he let you the opportunity to turn him down?" My relative blinked sheepishly and scratched the side of his neck with his nails, a small smile on his lips.

"Not really, and he kept asking Zabuza-san anyway in between relaying messages in the base and helping Mei-san and Dai-san." Right, Sasuke knew sensei was my sensei and because he was an Uchiha, he was directly under her orders. "But he seems to be fine and very focused. He realized the chance he had that you took him here."

"That's the whole point. Hey, now that we're walking to get a mission and before Suigetsu and Chōjūrō are with us, you'd help me put my seals to the test?" I had two Uzumaki summon now, Oki and Umi, who were big old sea lions surprised to be summoned after so long and who could use the Adamantine Chains. There was also a bunch of seals my clone put in Uma's pouches, be it to store chakra, compatibility seals, powerful chakra seals...there was a lot on how to seal powerful beings basically. And a cloak too.

"Of course!" he accepted with enthusiasm and I returned his smile. I was so happy he was alive this time around and that I had the chance to know him. Old Naruto had mentioned him once or twice but I only realized we were family in this timeline.

Yagura, who looked deadly pale and tired, sent us, team Uzumaki, to an island up north, where I knew there was a temple from the Yuki clan. Apparently, some jashinist had been located there. Even if Kiri ordered the purges, they were still ruins of what once were the glorious clans of the village, the Yuki clan being one of the first one with the Hōzuki clan.

I'd known about it for ages, but I never cared about it that much. Since my talk with oji-chan...I realized I had discarded a part of my identity, of my origins, I should never have discarded, because no matter if I liked it or not, I'd always be Kiri. I was ever since I was born.

"I'm going to freeze for real!" Suigetsu whined, wrapped up in his coat. The snow was heavy on the main island, a thin coat of white powder covering the ground of the less misty village at the moment. Here, on the small island from where the Yuki clan was originated, the snow reached our ankles, mostly because this island was inhabited by now.

"Keep moving then," I told him idly. I ignored him muttering under his breath and looked at Haku with interest. He raised a brow at me. "Haku, once we both have free time...would you like to come back here?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, it's just that I've always felt more Uzumaki than Yuki but...I shouldn't ignore it so much y'know? And well...you're pretty much the only other person to..."

"Oh, I see," he whispered softly, his eyes going to the fresh snow in front of him. "I...I'll come with you."

"You don't have to if you don't wan..."

"I want to know more too Uzu-nee, it's just..." he interrupted me but I knew. He suffered from being a Yuki too. In a different way than me, but he did. I offered him a small smile and flicked his nose.

"Thank you Haku, it actually means a lot to me."

The rest of the buildings in the village were covered in snow, hiding the proofs of the fire Kiri started there at the beginning of the purges. The atmosphere was still heavy and was making me way too uncomfortable. Once we went through the ghost town, we entered a wood, the trees lacking their leaves. It was silent between the four of us, only the wind was whistling softly in our ears.

Until we left the woods and the snow disappeared out of sudden, leaving a path of white stones in front of us, wild grass growing with difficulty between cobblestones. There was a temple in front of us, like frozen in time, untouched by the coldness of the area as the wall were still a deep brown. Logical when you know which clan it belonged to that it was unfazed by the cold.

"From now on, stay on your guards. You each have one of my kunai, but stay in group. Who knows what kind of creep we'll end up finding here." They all nodded and went to the left, whereas I was contouring the temple by the right.

It was strange. I had like a weight pressing against my heart and my stomach was aching, exactly like when I was extremely nervous or panicking. There was something or someone lurking around, that was for sure.

I created a clone and made it teleport to my team.

I barely did that that I heard clapping. I grabbed a regular kunai and looked all around me.

"My, my, my, look at you all grown up now. It's insane what fourteen years can do to a four-year-old, don't you think?" My eyes went wide with terror and my body froze, each of my muscle so tense it would probably hurt me to actually move one. I started breathing faster as I slowly looked up. I had not seen him in more than thirty years, almost forty, yet I knew it was him.

"D...Dad?" He grinned at me, his brown eyes, the same than mine, staring at me.

"You remember your old man Akane?" I could feel Minato's cold anger in the back of my mind.

"Run."

"But..." Dad raised a brow.

"RUN!" I did as he told me, but I bumped into my father. He grabbed me by the shoulders to keep me from moving or even fidgeting because I felt his chakra putting Mom's Immobility Seal on me. I was trapped like a rookie and terrified like a child. From a closer look, the color of his left eye seemed faded a little. I tried to look at the ground to find something to help me and felt cold sweat rolling down my back at the sight of the huge Hiraishin symbol under our feet. It was how he moved so fast then...

"Akane...why does your chakra seem so old?" he asked me rhetorically. Brutally, he took my left hand in his and almost crushed it, but he mainly ripped my bandages to look at my mark. "You...what did you do to yourself?"

"None of your business," I managed to hiss between clenched teeth and he glared at me.

"You being a Yurei changes everything." I gulped. Dad knew, he knew right away and I wasn't even surprised. "The clan thought it was just a legend, but your grandmother told me it was the dirtiest secret the Uzumaki clan had. There is no way I'm letting him know too much." I blinked at him. "I'm sure you know a lot about the Akatsuki and believe it or not, there is a rule saying Yurei are to stay hidden and I'm going to follow it."

My clone popped and I saw her teleporting my students to the hideout at the sight of Hoshigaki-san.

However, I started screaming. Why? Because my father had his fingers in my left eye socket, around my eye and was putting a seal on it. I momentarily stopped breathing, the only thing my mind could register being the pain of burning.

When he pulled his fingers out, he let go of me and I dropped on the ground. I was drooling and nothing came out of my mouth as the upper-half of my body fell on the stones, my forehead protector absorbing the impact. My eye was throbbing and shedding tears.

"Listen, I will play my part in this new story you're writing, and I won't let him know about it. The day you see him, because I know who he is like you do and I honestly find that hilarious, my gift will keep him from using his eye on you to interrogate you. Don't let him get you in your right eye." Why was he doing that? Since when did he care about the rules of the clan? Since when did he care about family?

He left. He dispelled the seal keeping me from moving and he left me here, alone and too weak to move just a muscle. As if on cue to add a dramatic effect, it started snowing. Slowly, I raised my left hand and placed it over my left eye, blood dropping from my bottom lip because I was biting so hard on it.

He had not really hurt me. He could have, he could have killed me, I was at his mercy because I froze like a rookie and forgot everything I knew. Yagura would kill me if he had witnessed that fight and…

"Akane get up, I know you can handle the cold but comes a moment where it will get to you."

"I don't wanna oji-chan, I...I want Mom."

"It's not the moment to be a child, get up and move but don't stay here. Don't be an easy target!"

"You sound helpless and in distress."

"Of course I am, I can't physically help you even if I wanted to!" Right...it wasn't the time to lay around in the snow.

Stop fucking around Akane.

STOP.

FUCKING.

AROUND.

I grunted as I pushed myself up with my right hand. My team was at the hideout and I had all of my chakra left. I focused and teleported myself to the hideout too, in front of sensei's panicked eyes. She stared at me, dumbfounded, and soon I had my face between her breasts, her arms pressing me against her.

"He didn't hurt you, did he? What did Ushio want with you Akane?" With great effort, I pulled my head out of her boobs, a faint blush on my cold cheeks.

"Don't know, he did something to my left eye, he put a seal on it. I..." She nodded and left. That was when I noticed Sasuke in a corner of the room, a box of weapons in front of him. "Hey you."

"He put a seal on your eye?" he asked me, jumping to his feet. What he was using to sharpen the weapons fell on the floor and he was in front of me. "I thought you couldn't put a seal directly on an organ without precaution!"

"You can but it's forbidden," I corrected him quietly. "That's why sensei went to get Dai. He'll know what to do."

"You're a mess," he stated platly.

"Makes two of us then," I retorted and he snorted with disdain, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I guess so." I breathed out slowly and focused on the little warmth the hideout was giving to find comfort. I wasn't alone in the snow anymore.

"Uzuuuuuuuuu!" I rolled my eyes and stretched out a little as the door was opened loudly. Here was Kimou, alert purple eyes set on me. I raised my hand to greet her and she took it as an invitation to jump on me, making us both fall on the floor. I grimaced at the impact, but Sasuke gawking like an idiot was worth it. "I was so worried!"

"Who's that?" Sasuke finally asked Dai, who arrived without me noticing. My friend shrugged.

"Uzu's number one fan. You haven't seen her steal a kiss from her ye...never mind," Dai explained as Kimou gave me a very slimy kiss on the lips, so much I wiped my mouth with my sleeve but I still could taste the taste of her lemon lip balm.

I raised a hand toward them, my eyes pleading, begging for help.

They both took their sweet time.

"Hokage-sama," Shisui greeted her when he entered her office. Immediately, he spotted Fugaku and Kakashi in a corner of the room, and from their stiff position, Shisui knew it was serious.

"I asked you to come here because I have an S-rank mission that needs to be done by an Uchiha. Fugaku recommended you. You will be away for a while and nobody, and I mean nobody, can know about where you'll be heading." The jouinin frowned and bowed.

"Of course, you have my word."

"Very well. Uchiha Shisui, you will go to the Land of Water and infiltrate the Hidden Mist." He opened his eyes wide. Why...were they going at war with Kiri? Would he fight Akane again? "I need you to check the Mizukage's status."

"I beg your pardon?"

"As you know, nothing about what's going on in the Land of Water is known on the continent. However, I have heard from reliable sources there was a movement of resistance growing more and more against the current government in power. Terumi Mei is leading this movement, and recently they attacked their own village to make themselves known. Konoha is going to help them as much as possible, just as the Sandaime promised before." Nothing was making sense anymore in his head. Kiri had a movement of resistance? Akane's sensei was leading it? Then, she… "Before Akane left Konoha for Kiri, some anbu infiltrated the village. Among them were her teammates, who told her about the situation. She has been a spy for the past two years and a half." His wide eyes were now staring at the floor. Akane, a spy? Then...then her behavior during the Chuuning Exams was nothing but an act? Relief washed over him and it was replaced by worry. Was she handling the pressure? He remembered Itachi and how he was almost always on the verge of breaking before, so with her own condition… "In any case, they're suspecting the Mizukage to be under a genjutsu from the Sharingan."

"Why the Sharingan?" he asked more to his clan head than his Kage. Fugaku sighed.

"Because, after long discussions, they confirmed me the Yondaime was a jinchuriki. Apart from the Sharingan, no genjutsu can control a bijuu, even if it's inside its host," Tsunade told him gravely and Shisui straightened his back. Akane had been trained by a jinchuriki? What kind of training had she been through exactly!? "I want you to go there and tell me if yes or no it's the work of an Uchiha. Officially, Terumi has not accused Konoha of anything, particularly because of our own past concerning Kyuubi."

"Are you implying that, if an Uchiha is controlling the Mizukage, that very same Uchiha could have controlled the Kyuubi back then?" All he got was nods of heads.

"You're leaving tomorrow. The Resistance will take care of everything once you cross the border of the Land of Wave. However, once you're in the Land of Water, you won't be able to communicate with us easily, you'll be on your own with them."

"Don't you trust them?"

"It's not that, but until we have confirmation it is the Sharingan behind all of that, Konoha will only help protecting the civilians in Wave. I am thinking about sending a few shinobi there if Konoha gets too involved, even if they want to keep the fight to themselves. There's no failure acceptable Shisui, understood?"

"Understood," he replied, his face void of any emotions. When he got home, Shisui sat on his bed in silence.

It was in this very same room Akane came to tell him she was leaving two years and a half ago. It was in this room he confessed to her, where he kissed her. Shisui placed two fingers on his lips. After she left, he regretted it a little, confessing and kissing her out of nowhere. He had noticed how shocked she had been, but he didn't think about it. He just did, because he wanted something for himself from her, and it had came in the form of her second first kiss.

He had never planned on confessing or kissing her that night. He probably would not have confessed at all if she had stayed, but she had not, and now he couldn't help but have a bitter taste in his mouth every time he thought of her, bitter taste hiding the taste of vanilla of her lips that night.

He wanted to taste them again. He wanted to have her in his arms again and see her smile at him, her eyes filled with mirth.

He was going to see her though, and no matter how much he wanted to spend some time alone with her, he had a mission to do.

He would not fail.

I knocked the sword, my training sword I used to practice with when I was nothing but a chuunin with Mangetsu, out of Sasuke's hands with the random katana I had picked up in the room. I definitely could spot traces of the basics in his stance, but overall it was still sloppy. Knowing Zabuza-san, he must have told Sasuke that if he uses his sharin he would stop teaching him.

"You're sloppy. You're gripping at your sword too hard and don't give your wrist enough flexibility to properly block all kind of attacks. With that posture, you can stop frontal attacks only." It was rubbing his sore wrist, I may have gone a little bit too hard on him, that he picked up his sword. "However, your level isn't horrible enough to stay only swordsmanship."

"Can't you just say 'good enough'?" he muttered with an adorable frown on his face.

"Nope, if I said that you'd be like 'oh, I'm not that bad, I don't need too much effort to get better' so I'm shattering your ego before it rises." He scoffed, moved his wrist a little bit more and he was back in position. "Even more interesting. You have Fire and Lightning as your chakra affinities. Please tell me Kakashi taught you something useful." I was pretty sure he used the Chidori against Naruto before, but now? I wasn't so sure if anyone told me anything about it either and I didn't want to screw my knowledge up.

"The Chidori," he answered and I cheered mentally. Good, good, it was good. I went on missions with old Sasuke and knew his fighting style and his moves. I totally could orient him already.

"Then, because you'll probably have to fight at some point, I'll teach a sword trick. The blade is made of iron, and lucky you, it naturally is a conductor." I let chakra in my own blade and it was sharpened by a coat of sharp blue chakra. "I use that a lot, as I am a Water, Wind and Ice user, I use my Wind affinity on my blade. It sharpens it. You, Sasuke, can use your Lightning affinity to, well I don't know about the sharpening part, but it could be good to surprise your opponent if he blocks you or as a shield in a way." Sasuke was listening with attention and nodded every single time he found logic in my words. "Usually, I would tell you to figure how to do it on your own, but use your eyes to see how I am doing it to gain us some time, I'm supposed to leave soon."

Sasuke nodded and activated his sharigan. He didn't manage to do it in the next thirty minutes, but he seemed to understand the trick quite well. So when we were interrupted by Karin when he was about to change from theory to practice, he was naturally frustrated and showed it by glaring at her. I knocked him behind his head to make him stop.

"Mei-san wants you two to come to the reunion room now, she...has something in mind?"

"You don't know either then?" I replied, putting the katana against the wall to follow her. Sasuke sealed his in a scroll, Dai must have given him one, and followed as well, hands in his pockets to feign nonchalance. I wasn't buying it though, I knew he was curious. I knew the faint glint in his eyes, as Aki had the exact same one.

As it turned out, sensei wanted to take a picture. There were most people from the movement, and before I knew it I was stuck between my teammates, each of them having an arm draped over my shoulders.

Sensei told Sasuke to go in front of me. He truly wanted to refuse, I saw it, but he still ended up in front me, my left covered arm under his chin to keep him from moving. My team of now chuunin were in front of us, sat on the floor, Zabuza-san standing next to Haku. Senpai and Harusame-san were next to us and somehow, Kimou found a way to sneak between Mangetsu and Naoto, who was rolling his eyes at the mess sensei was creating. Next to Dai were Kiri and Ruka, and others I didn't have much contact with, mainly because I knew there was still animosity toward me.

The picture ended up being taken, and from the happy and stress-free eyes Mei-sensei had, I grinned ear-to-ear. She was under too much stress and I wouldn't let her student ruin something that was making her so happy.

Hey! Thanks for reading! Please review so that I know you liked it :) Thanks to kankananime123. Yep, Naruto is a weird one :p he'd definitely would try to go in Kiri though x). Oh, I'm on a break for a week next week, so hoepfully I'l be able to write between essay and presentations preparations !

Bye!