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

"Sasuke is coming?" I repeated with a puzzled expression. Mangetsu just nodded grimly in front of me. "But...I mean, I get she wants to use him for something else than tidying up, but it's the first mission that's supposed to cast doubt upon us, isn't that too risky?"

"I thought so too, but Dai agrees with her so...we're on the losing side."

"When am I on the winning side anyway?" I snarled and my brush went through the paper of the seal I was drawing. I dropped it on the table and ran my hands over my face. "It's not that I doubt his skills, but he'll be spotted from miles around and I doubt my own focus if he's here!"

"I'll slap you again if needed," my friend volunteered, "I'll do that for you."

"Trust me, I don't doubt your word on that," I replied in a deadpan voice.

Alright, some explanations. Kirigakure and the Land of Water were basically autarkical. In theory, they were self-sufficient on any fields and didn't need to import or export goods. Which was true, except shinobi, nothing really went through the borders and the Daimyo was really bothered by that, hence why we had his utter support to overthrow the powers in place.

It was why I loved takoyaki so much. We ate a lot more seafood and fishes than meat, primary because we were surrounded by water and species you couldn't find anywhere else thanks to our diversified climates, but also because of the purges. Nobody wanted to eat something that came out of a soil filled with blood of innocent. It wasn't appetizing and it was hard to grow food because of the state of the lands anyway. It was a miracle we had rice.

I often dreamed of vegetables, not gonna lie. But seafood in Kiri was the best of the best. Konoha takoyaki next to Kiri?

Bland. Just like the ramen in Kiri compared to Ichiraku. Bland.

Anyway, because there was so little lands where we could grow food, the fields were scattered in the country, and to make the transportation easier, the Daimyo managed to have railroads to connect towns.

It wasn't because we were closed to other countries, in the aftermath of civil wars and about to start another that we were less developed than others. For instance, if I provided so many seals to the hospital wasn't because we sucked, but because we were lacking the equipment and people. Obviously, Konoha was still way ahead of us, but they had Tsunade-san, so it didn't count. We had improved our weapons, I didn't want to think of some of the projects Yagura involved me in that were not conclusive, and even if people didn't usually use them, trains were fast here because food needed to be delivered quickly, and to sum up very well developped.

These past two years and a half really made me understand a lot more about Kiri and my country. I ended up finding some good intents and logic in the way everything worked here, like the 'new' graduation exams at the Academy. The scenery was beautiful too at some place, like the Furou Springs, a beautiful spring on an unnamed island up north, where the mist was thicker than anywhere else but it would be gone once you were at the spring. From what I heard, the water was azure and filled with natural chakra. The legend said it was where a very talented blacksmith was traveling long ago, during the Warring States Period, with seven of his newly made weapons. He stopped for a break and made them fall in the spring. When he fished them out, they changed and he could barely take the biggest sword of the seven in his hands because it would try to bite him. Once the wars were over and Kiri was created, the blacksmith gave these swords to the First Mizukage, who chose the seven strongest shinobi of the village to wield them.

The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were born, and the blacksmith was never heard of again.

There were also ruins of ancient civilizations in the cliffs, not that very far from the village actually.

Man, I was pretty sure we were the only one who had contact with people from the Eastern continent! There were three in the world, and apparently weird ships attacked the Land of the Wind recently, so it could be the continent down south, but we had contact and proof there was something in the East for sure.

Back to the train. Yagura was more cautious than usual, and seemingly exhausted and looked terrible, so he ordered us to guard the next train bringing our rations between Kiribukai, the capital of the country, and Kiri. Unofficially, we were supposed to hijack it and let the Resistance get the rations.

Sensei wanted us, Mangetsu, Dai and I, to take Sasuke with us. Sasuke was good, don't get me wrong, but the three of us were anbu and recognized in our respective fields as the best of the village.

I didn't like that one bit, but I didn't have a choice. Sensei told me Konoha had sent us someone to check if Yagura was indeed under the Sharingan for Konoha's sake, so it would be soon.

So, so very soon. I didn't know who the shinobi was, but it had to be an Uchiha. Or a Hyuuga, don't know. In any case, they were strong because they had to infiltrate the village, reach Yagura and leave.

"Stop staring at it."

"Sorry Uzu, I need to get used to your new eye color."

"It's one shade lighter, no that much of a difference. Get over it."

"You're so rude."

"You were the one staring."

"Still so rude," he mumbled once again, ignoring my words. I rolled my eyes and went back to my seals. The most important thing when you fought with and used seals in mission was to be sure to have lots of them, so a lot of time was spent making them.

In fact, I couldn't say if Mangetsu and I being the only two protecting the train was a sign of distrust or of trust. It was to feed Kiri but at the same time, others could do it just as well than us and Yagura might just have wanted out of his way.

Now I was really thinking about it, he looked terribly sick. Like really.

But here we were, me standing on the roof of the train at the front whereas Mangetsu was on the last wagon. Everything had been fine since we left the city, but the train was going slowly because of the snow of December on the ground.

I raised my head toward the mountain above us. Quickly, I threw three of my marked kunai on the side of the train and I caught a glimpse of Mangetsu doing the same, my weapons forming a line all along the train. I went through hand seals quickly and a wave of solid blue chakra rose from my kunai, stopping the avalanche. I felt sweat rolling down my face as I took a step back, the weight of the snow being heavier than anticipated.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Mangetsu jumping from the roof of the train and running to where the explosions were, casually cutting through the snow with Samehada. Right, the genius who mastered all seven swords and he wasn't even nineteen yet.

The more I thought about it, the more natural geniuses were terrifying to me. Being so good at killing and thinking on how to survive when you were just a child was scary.

The train stopped once it was far enough and the workers inside fled quickly in screams and terror. Humph, not surprising.

I jumped in the snow and climbed in the train. There was nothing interesting in the conductor compartment, so I started to go toward the first wagon. I looked outside a window and raised a brow at Sasuke running toward me. Once he was inside too, I noticed the unconscious workers.

"Sharingan?" I asked him and the disappearing redness in his eyes answered me. "Got the list?"

"Yes," he said, pulling out a paper from his pocket. It was mostly food, with some medicine too. "This kind of shipment is crucial for Kiri?"

"Yes, with the natural weather and how we destroyed our lands during the civil wars years ago, nothing really healthy or good grow here. You need to really look for the good spots and they're rare. Kiribukai is the capital and Kiri the shinobi village, so they're priorities."

We sealed what was needed quietly and Sasuke shivered because of the cold once we were outside. Dai was there, alone, and I rolled my eyes at him and his stupid grin when he showed me a senbon.

"Mangetsu and you had a good spar?"

"Yep!" He nodded enthusiastically. Dai had Water, Lightning and Fire affinities, and because he was a medic, it meant he could knock out Mangetsu or Suigetsu wayyyyy too easily. I could to by freezing them, but Dai was...more violent. I knew it was what he used on Mangetsu. A mix of the tricks oinin learned about faking death and Lighning affinity. "Your turn Uzu!"

"He better not complain to me when we wake up," I muttered and my body went numb from the pain when he stabbed me in the neck, electricity going through my body and immobilize me for good.

Needless to say, we were stuck in the snow until reinforcement arrived. The team was led by Ao-san, and Ao-san being the leader of the oinin, he recognized Dai's technique right away. We were asked questions on the entire way home, but once we set a foot in the village we all stopped talking. The atmosphere was tense, way too tense.

"Mizukage-sama," Ao-san whispered with wide eyes. Even if he was with the Resistance, even if he was still in the village right now, he was one of the last person who knew Yagura before he was a Kage. He...maybe he still cared for the real Yagura deep down, especially knowing how he was controlled.

As we ran to the Kage building, my heart started pounding heavily in my chest. He was right, only Yagura could create that kind of the feeling in the air.

"Uzumaki!" Kitsu, Yagura's right hand man, barked at me harshly, grabbing my shoulder brutally. I kept myself from showing signs of pain from his hold on me and I looked in his cold and cruel black eyes. "Go to the hospital now!"

"Why?"

"Kitsu-san, what happened?" Ao-san asked him, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Mizukage-sama is sick, he was sent to the hospital in emergency. They said it could be his seal. Uzumaki, what are you still doing here!?" He pushed me and I barely had the time to keep myself from falling by grabbing Mangetsu's arm. My friend straightened me quickly and sent a dark glare at the jounin.

"Right away sir," I replied coldly and ignored the snarl on his face. He was one of the people who hated my guts and didn't hide it.

I ran to the hospital. If I had the time, I could check the seals I put there. We were supposed to put seals everywhere in town, for explosions, protection and, in my case, markers for my Hiraishin.

"Uzumaki-san, please this way!" A nurse with bright purple hair told me. I walked briskly to the farthest wing of the hospital, the last floor usually used for the extremely fancy patients. The Mizukage was a fancy patient I guess.

The nurse pushed me in a room and a woman with strict features basically forced out of my clothes into a big white suit with a hood, with a yellow visor. She grabbed my wrist, her nails digging in my skin from how stressed she was. I soon found myself in front of a thick window, looking in a white room closed by a thick and sealed iron door. Yagura was inside in a bed, a simple sheet covering in lower body, sweat rolling down his skin. His face was contorted in pain, way too white to be healthy and his brows were firmly set in a frown. He was gasping in pain and I felt sick to my stomach at this sight. In my past life, I had not seen him being anything but strong and cruel. I heard about his death and that was it.

Watching him this much in pain touched me in a way I didn't think I would feel when it came to that man.

"What are you waiting for you idiot?" a doctor hissed at me, throwing me to the door. "It's his seal, do your job!"

"Yes," I mumbled, entering the room. Once the door was closed, I felt them activating the seal, clearly telling me if someone was dying because of Yagura it would be me first.

I still had a long way to go to be accepted here after all…

I took a deep breath, thankful of the protection I had over my body that was protecting me from the wave of red chakra in the air. It was more visible now I was in the room with him, and it was almost hard to breath because of the dangerous chakra creeping up my body. I walked to Yagura and inspected his torso. His seal was weaker than the one I knew, the one Naruto had, as it was leaving the bijuu free inside the jinchuriki. Maybe Isobu and Yagura had been trying too hard to break the genjutsu on their side and the body couldn't handle so much pressure, because the seal was on the verge of breaking. The rectangular symbol had a black hole in its center, from where red chakra was leaking as the ink used to make the seal was dripping on his ribs and onto the mattress.

It was my chance. I could enter the seal. People were watching me, but time was slower here than in the bijuu's dimension, and they didn't have a clue on how fuinjutsu worked. They wouldn't notice a thing.

I put my hand over his seal, not on his skin though. I gathered chakra in my hand and felt the symbols on my arm reacting to the bijuu inside of Yagura. I blinked and the creepy white hospital room turned into white everywhere. I glanced at the shadow of the Shinigami and my soul in front of me and shot a look at my hand.

Yep, my scar was there, I was physically thirty-six.

"You grew up quite well before," I heard a male voice saying behind me. I froze and my eyes went wide. I heard him sigh at my reaction. "I guess your reaction is normal after all Akane." I swear it was a tint of sadness in his voice.

I took my courage in both hands and, with a deep inspiration, turned around. His pink eyes lit up, even if there was no smile on his face. He was silently calculating me almost like a scarred animal.

"Ya...Yagura-sama?" I asked quietly. "The real one?"

"Yeah, the one who's been desperately trying to reach you for the past two years." I bit the inside of my cheeks. His eyes were not cold nor cruel. His face wasn't emotionless. For the first time ever, he was being human in front of me. Behind him was Isobu-kun, big, intimidating, yet his lone open eye was clearly showing interest and an almost childlike curiosity toward me.

"Isobu."

"Red-chan!" I blinked and pointed at myself. 'Red-chan'? Where was that coming from?

"It was how Fubuki called you from the moment your parents discovered you would be a girl."

"What? How...what?" I was totally confused. Yagura raised a brow at me.

"I guess Akiko kept for herself everything related to Kiri, and I gave the order to people to keep what they knew about you for themselves the first time you went back to the village. Or more like that masked man did." It would make sense, I only knew I was born in Kiri and we left when I was one for protection. That Dad and Yagura were both considered as potential Yondaime.

Mom never said anything else, and now I wanted to know everything.

"Do...do you know me?" He smirked.

"Knowing you? Ushio was my teammate, I had to endure him marveling during Akiko's pregnancies. They never told you I was supposed to be your godfather either I guess." I opened my eyes as wide as saucers.

"Talk, now."

"There are things you should learn from your mother's mouth." Really? She had been silent my whole life, would she just open up now!? "If she sees Kiri is no longer a threat to you, she'll speak."

"But how do you know that nickname Isobu?"

"It's because his old jinchuriki was friend with your parents, like the previous jinchuriki of the Rokubi. The two Uzumakis in the village had to be involved in this, the Sandaime wouldn't have had it any other way." It was a lot of new information at once. "I'm sure it killed Naoto inside all those years to keep this secret for himself."

"That's why he was always so concerned about me," I whispered with pained eyes. I'd always thought it was because he felt guilty because of his father, but it was because he knew me when I was a baby? Who else did I know? "I have way more questions than before now, but they're too personal to waste the time we have now."

"Akiko will be able to answer all of these, even if I want to have a long chat with you. We don't have the time. Once you'll fix the seal, I will be forced to be a viewer only. Since the masked man put me in a genjutsu, I felt and saw, heard everything, but I couldn't speak or act, my body was doing that on its own."

"You're trapped in your own mind," I said coolly.

"Yes, the Sharingan can't reach this part of my and Isobu's mind, that's why we're here. Your new condition...when we're close enough, it acts like a thread through the genjutsu, it goes through the cracks and it led me for the past two years and a half. I don't know why the Uchiha didn't reinforce his genjutsu, or more like stopped doing it at some point, but we almost broke the seal in the end. When this meeting is over, you'll fix my seal and I'll be gone once again. I know where to hit though, so when you'll fight me, I'll need you to hit at the same place with your own chakra to break the genjutsu."

"Wow, wow calm dow..."

"Nobody but you can face me, why do you think I've always been going so hard on you, even recently? In bijuu mode? I was doing my best to prepare you. Even if you hate it, you're your father's daughter." I glared at that and he sighed. "Believe it or not, I know your father better than you, and I remember the hopeful and goofy man he was in Kiri. I can only imagine what went through his mind when he killed Fubuki, but you're a lot like him, before he..."

"He what, turned crazy? Became a child killer? A member of the Akatsuki, the guys who're controlling you!?"

"Yet, I remember the man who saved my life more than once and who let me have the hat, who asked me to change Kiri from the Sandaime era." He stared at his feet. "I made it worse in the end."

"It's not you!" I snapped and he shot me a surprise look, especially because of my fiery eyes. "These past ten years...it wasn't you! Now I'm talking to you, and the clues you've been leaving behind...they'll pay for what they've taken from you!"

"You don't hate me?"

"I..." Did I hate him? "No, I don't. I stopped hating you when I was told you were controlled for as long as you were the Mizukage. I realized you had been used like I had been, but you never got out of it. You..." I stopped myself. Maybe there was a way to break the genjutsu and keep him alive! So bam, no new jinch…

"I died," he told me sternly. "And I'll die soon here too. This genjutsu...it's fixed too deep in my mind, the moment it breaks, the amount of pressure you and I will put on my body and my mind to break it, I won't handle it."

"I can find something!"

"You're running out of time Akane!" he roared back at me. "Don't you realize you've been playing cat and mouse with him ever since you came back from Konoha!? He knows! I don't know the extent of what he knows, but I don't think he cares about Kiri half as much as he cares about testing you and your reactions! You were never supposed to become a kunoichi and he turned you into a weapon he knew how to wield!"

I blinked. What...why would Obito want to do that? Did he want me into the Akatsuki? Didn't he have enough strong people already!?

"I don't know what he wants from you, and I'm not sure if I want to know," Yagura continued, calming his breathing down, "but he wants to use you and worst, he knew what you could do." Because oji-chan took his team home more than once, because I loved Obito and believed him when he was claiming he'd be Hokage. "Akane, be careful, especially with what you know now."

"Yeah...yeah I know," I mumbled, cold sweat running down my back. Oji-chan told me I wouldn't be able to be nobody anymore but...but even in my past life? I…

"Sorry to put even more pressure on you, but I had to tell you." I slapped my cheeks with my hands.

"Thank you Yagura." He averted his eyes away, obviously embarrassed.

"Don't mention it!" I couldn't bring myself to teasing him, because it was the first time I was seeing him so human and it would be the last time. "Stop staring too! Isobu, it's your turn!"

"Red-chan," Isobu said and I looked up at him. He sounded like a little boy, like a scared little boy. "What will happen to me after Yagura-kun..."

"You will be sealed once again," I replied without thinking about it twice. He scowled deeply and I surprised myself walking closer to him. "I'm sorry Isobu-kun, I...I don't want to make another jinchuriki, and when I tried to convince sensei to choose me, she said I probably wouldn't handle another bijuu. Even if I hate it, I agree with her. However, there's a reason why we can't let you roam around freely."

"The red clouds?" Yagura asked next to me. I nodded.

"Yeah, they...they'll collect the bijuu in a couple of years. Isobu-kun, I've already told Saiken, but they want the Juubi." Isobu widened his eye.

"Grandpa said he was too dangerous! He said we would be together one day but that it would be dangerous!" Grandpa? Like...the Sage?

"Yeah...so...it would be safer, okay? I'll find someone nice and you'll be friends, alright?"

"Like Yagura-kun?" he questioned me shyly. I nodded, a lump in my throat. He sounded so much like a lonely child, and sealing him would make someone...isolated and hated for no reason.

"Like me, trust Red-chan." I glared at Yagura's amused smirk.

"You'll visit Red-chan?" Isobu asked me with hope. I smiled softly at him and my hand closed itself on one of his big nails.

"Yeah, I'll do my best. I'll do my best to keep you out of danger, and I'll come to your rescue if needed. I'm...I'm so tired of the same old circle of people using people as weapons to be the strongest."

Old Naruto put an end to it after the bloodiest war in History, so if I could make it better on my side too… I shook my head to clear my thoughts at little.

"Isobu-kun, do you know how I could get an extract of your chakra before I seal you?"

"Oh, if somebody's affected, during a fight or if I eat you and you see my children." I blinked. "I have mini-mis inside of me."

"Ha, gotcha." I frowned when I started to feel lighter, and quickly realized my hand and whole body were fading away. "Crap, already?"

"Akane, get down." I looked down at Yagura, who was staring at me. "Just do it!" I did, and I had a puzzle expression on my face when he hugged me awkwardly. "Good job, and be sure to win the fight, okay? You know all of my techniques. Just...I want to die as myself, I want the Bloody Mist to die with me. Make sure you're doing that, and make sure your generation and the following ones create a new direction for Kiri."

"I will," I told him, sure of myself. "I promise Yagura, we'll destroy the Bloody Mist from within and Kiri will rise from her ashes. I promise."

"Thank you, and say to Naoto that I'm sorry."

I was back in the hospital room and my face was sweating. I was breathing heavily, so I hurried and fixed the seal, the dripping ink creeping back up in its place.

The tense and dangerous atmosphere dissipated right away and I finally took a deep breath, taking the visor and hood down. Two nurses came in and took Yagura away, probably to put him in a real room.

I started stretching my arms above my head, wanting nothing more than a hot bath for my sore muscles, write to sensei, eat and sleep. Of course, my ambitions were cut short.

No, not my talk with Yagura that left a bitter taste in my mouth because of how accepting he was toward his fate, but because an alarm started ringing loudly. I took off my suit quickly, almost making my wound in the neck bleed again if it wasn't for the bandages around it, leaving me in my shinobi clothes and I ran down to the lobby.

"Konoha shinobi spotted! Code black, I repeat code black!" 'Foreign infiltration' then…

Tsunade-san wouldn't have sent some kind of bad shinobi, I was sure of it. So...how, why...getting in Kiri was harder than getting out of it, so…

They were in the hospital.

I found myself with Mangetsu quickly, Seihitsu tracking down the shinobi.

They must have been in the hospital, the alarm rang there first. So, logically, they were close to Yagura during his sickness.

They must have been touched by Isobu's chakra and got infected, hence making them sloppy as fuck. We exited the village pretty fast and Mangetsu climbed on top of Seihitsu, behind me, when we were in the frozen swamps. Strangely enough, there wasn't anybody but us for some time.

Well, what was stranger was how Kiri shinobi attacked us without an explanation.

"Okay, genjutsu again?" Mangetsu grumbled next to me. I deflected a kunai with my own.

"Looks like it, a powerful one too."

"They don't even seem to be under the influence of one!" I frowned. Huh, Mangetsu had a point he…

My left eye twitched.

For fuck's sake Tsunade-san, why did you have to send Shisui out of everyone!?

"It's Shisui," I muttered angrily, anger bubbling inside of me. "I'm taking care of it."

"Got it, I cover you then." Samehada ripped her own bandages and Mangetsu charged, letting weapons go through him.

I ran around them and used the already present snow of the ground to make it more slippery with my Ice Release and slid between a shinobi's legs. Before he could follow me, Mangetsu was in front of him. I told my summon to go home, and with a quiet concerned growl to me, he did.

Alright, back to sensor mode now. I let a weak wave of chakra out of me. If there was one thing Naoto was very strict about when he taught me sensing, was that because I had bigger chakra reserves than average and great control thanks to fuinjutsu, wasting my chakra on sensing a big area was useless. Focus on a range around you and feel the slightest thing happening within that range. I still wasn't the best, but I wasn't awful either.

Anyway, I localized Shisui.

He was too slow to be okay. I knew the chakra of a bijuu was toxic, I didn't know if the effects were different depending the bijuu. I sped up and spotted him quickly, worry twisting my stomach. Shisui was known to be fast and he…

I threw one of my kunai. He leaned on the right and body flickered a few meters away as I teleported.

"I told you to stay away Shisui," I told him coldly, my eyes finding his glassy onyx one. "I warned you it would kill you, but you didn't listen, did you?" I summoned Nuibari and picked up my kunai. "You're not giving me a choice anymore."

Honestly, from how much he was shaking and how his eyes were not focusing on anything, I couldn't tell if he was hearing me or not. It was a miracle he could move at all.

However, I needed a proof I killed him or I was screwed.

As I slowly walked up to Shisui, his body failing him more and more, my blade shone under the faint sunlight there was.

I would make sure nobody gets his eyes.

Hey! Thanks for reading! Please review so that I know you liked it :) Thanks to kankananime123, Ederisu and nevvy for their reviews. Also...yeah, I'm...not a fan of this chapter but I needed to move forward in the story. Did Akane kill Shisui though? Who knows, he's in a pretty bad shape. Don't hate me until the next chapter please!

Bye!