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

Tsunade was pacing nervously behind her desk, her hands crossed behind her back. In front of the desk stood Fugaku, who had been reading Shisui's note for the past five minutes.

"I have sent Jiraya so that he could talk to Shisui himself, but I'm already making a list of whom I will be sending. Do you confirm it's his handwriting?"

"I do," the clan head confirmed darkly, fingers crumpling the paper. "Hokage-sama, I assure you on everything I have that my clan and I have nothing to do with that Uchiha controlling the Mizukage, nor did we participate in the Kyuubi attack."

"I know that Fugaku, and with Sasuke with them, it would be even more trouble. However, even if I know that, the rest of the village still have some doubts about you all. You have to take a decision, if you refute any connection with that rogue Uchiha, then you side with Konoha, end of the story. However, if there is even just a part of you who agrees with what he does, then I will take the appropriate measures."

"And what would they be if I may ask?"

"I won't have any other choice than to exile the Uchiha clan from the village." Fugaku became rigid at that. "The extermination of the Uchiha clan would not be a solution at all, but I would make you leave the village, even if the Uchihas are one of its founding clan. Even if me, as the Shodai's granddaughter, taking that decision would probably light up the rivalry between Uchihas and Senjus, Konoha won't take responsibility of Kiri's crisis for the past ten years. I'll terminate every connection between you and the village, even if it means a war in the future."

"I understand your position Tsunade-sama, but I can assure you that the Uchiha clan has nothing to do with the rogue Uchiha, and has never had any connection with him from the moment he disappeared from our clan."

They stared at each other for a while, until Tsunade closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. When she opened her eyes again, a satisfied smirk was at the corner of her lips.

"Good, then when I'll send shinobi, you won't mind being part of one of them?"

"It would be my honor to help stop the man who cost the village many good shinobi Hokage-sama," Fugaku stated as he bowed to her. "If I may, do you have any idea of who will be sent?"

"I will send genin for the civilians in the Land of Wave, as they're only doing stuff inside the village we will survive without them for a while. As for Kiri itself, Jiraya will be the one you'll be responding to as if his words were mine. However, I want you to form a team of Uchiha shinobi, four including Shisui who's already over there. I will complete the group myself. Start thinking about it now."

"I already am. Thank you for your time and your trust."

"Having troubles with you is the last thing on my mind right now. You can leave."

Once he was gone, Tsunade fell in her chair and sigh in exhaustion. Once her cup was filled with sake, she let her thoughts drift to the current problems.

The border were barely secured.

Uchiha Sasuke wasn't officially a missing-nin, but only her, Kakashi and Fugaku were aware of that, but also Shizune.

Uchiha Itachi was getting on her nerves, asking for every missions near Oto.

Kakashi and his team, where Rock Lee was replacing Sasuke, were on a mission in the Land of the Moon, but Naruto was also getting on her nerves.

She had Haruno Sakura as an apprentice.

And icing on the cake, she had the opportunity to learn more, or more like getting more proofs on the man who killed Minato and Kushina.

Tsunade emptied her drink in one go.

Being the Hokage was exhausting, she would get gray hair soon with all that stress.

"Oh hello there," I said to a nurse as I exited the broom closet. Sensei asked me to place three buildings under protection. The hospital, the Kage building and the weapon factory, because in the underground were very dangerous weapons. She also asked me to put a seal keeping people from teleporting inside, so I did. I would need to walk myself.

"What are you doing here Uzumaki-san?"

"Someone threw up, the directer ordered me clean up as if I were his dog." Ruka appeared at the corner of the hall and I ran up to her. "Yo!"

"Ah, Uzumaki-san," she greeted me with a small friendly smile, "how are you?"

"Good good, I'm surviving the Mizukage teaching me a new jutsu so that's good." This technique where he created a water mirror that sent a replica of your opponent and the technique he was using was incredible. Hard to learn, but awesome nonetheless.

Anyway, those seals? Done. The last jounin in the village who were also with the Resistance were all tasked to place seals in the various districts of the village to replace the civilians with the genjutsu Kimou elaborated.

Everything was coming together. Jiraya-san had probably already sent confirmation of Shisui's observations. I don't think Tsunade-san is going to sit back while Obito is around. Konoha shinobi would be in Kiri and sensei wouldn't be able to say 'no' because it was Konoha's business now, as much as ours. I just hope the Uchiha clan, Fugaku-san, has taken the right decision.

Hum...once I left the hospital, I stopped under a street lamp, turned on even if it was the day. The mist was thick and frozen in the end of December. The year was over tomorrow.

It seemed like it was forever ago I went back to Konoha but it was barely six months ago.

"Yo, watcha doing up there!?" I yelled at Mangetsu, who was on a small plateau in the mountain at our secret spot. Said plateau was merely big enough for one person, sitting his back against the rocky face of the mountain, and my best friend was taking all the space, his head not moving from the sea we could see from up there.

This spot was where I passed out in my early genin days. Mangetsu found me and we became friends. It was hidden in the mist and a lot of trees and bushes a few miles near Kiri. It was a clearing surrounded by mountains except for the entrance, and a small lake was formed from the spring running down the rock. Then, there was a waterway separating the clearing in two, waterway flowing into the see through an underwater passage under the mountain. Above the passage was a plateau from where we could see the sea.

However, climbing up there was hard, even for us. The rocks were slippery and extremely friable.

"Mangetsu?" I called him again, wondering why he wasn't answering me. He stretched out his hand and gestured me to join him. "Hey, good way to train me with your marker!"

Because of his body, I couldn't place a regular marker on his skin because he would just get rid of it. So, after long hours spent studying chakra in even more details than before, which was already in extreme details otherwise I wouldn't have made the Pupil Seal, and some tries, sometimes not successful, I placed a marker, with his authorization, in his chakra network.

I am actually a genius! Ah!

It didn't keep him from grabbing my hand when I appeared next to him, a foot into nothing. With a lot of squeezing, I sat down next to him, our legs dangling as we watched the waves crashing down the rocks below us.

"I'm the one who's depressed and pensive, what's wrong?" He kept staring at the vast blue stretch, but he pursed his lips, his brows furrowing an inch.

"Just...thinking about the future, that's all."

"Making projects?"

"More like wondering if...never mind." My blood went cold in my veins and my face lost all traces of teasing. "Even if we win...we won't change the reputation of the village that easily, especially us. I'm worried about that, that's all.

"You mean like shinobi from Kiri now?"

"No, I mean us. You, me, Zabuza-senpai, Naoto-san...people who are close, too close to Yagura. Maybe it will be okay for Zabuza-senpai because of his murder attempt on the Mizukage, but us? Naoto's the son he sent to track people down, you're his apprentice and now a Swordsman and I'm one too, ever since I was ten. We won't...none of us is from the lower class either but between middle and privileged classes." I looked at him with a blank face.

"Since when do you keep this for yourself?"

"A while. Dai told me one mentally unstable element on the team was already more than needed." I gulped with difficulty. Not that what Dai told him hurt me as it was true and ever since Konoha he had been extra cautious about me, but Mangetsu was kind of the leader of the team, my best friend, and I didn't know he felt like that.

"Then we'll just show them we didn't agree with Yagura?" I suggested in an uncertain tone. He didn't seem to like it as he lowered his eyes to the waves crashing against the rocks. "I mean, you once told me you didn't like knowing Suigetsu could end up dead at any street corner, so...I know!" Mangetsu raised a brow at my fiery eyes and my fists clenched in front of me in determination. "You'll be the Sixth and bam!"

"Wh...I don't think I have what it takes to be the Mizukage Uzu."

"You so do! I mean, you're strong and have the best interests of the village at heart, that's enough! You just need to show people that's who you are and you have their support! Prove yourself even more than in the past in the final battle!" The corner of his lips lifted a little, sharp teeth grazing his lower lip.

"Then you'd be my right-hand woman and adviser?" I gave him a thumbs-up with a toothy grin, to which he snickered. "We're all doomed no matter what then!"

"To the beginning of the end!"

I knew very well they were trying to protect me like they've always had, but it felt good to be the one to cheer them up, even if here it was just Mangetsu.

Even if, later, when the future host of Isobu told me he was the one that was chosen behind my back, I felt like strangling someone. Why? Because presenting me with a done deal would keep me from trying to change it.

"Why you!? For God's sake, why is it always my family!?"

"Uzu-nee," Haku started with pleading eyes, "please calm down, I'm okay with that."

"You don't know what it is Haku, even if your kekkai genkai made it so that you were compatible...I...people will..."

"But you won't, will you?"

"Of course not!"

"Then it's okay," he assured me with a calm smile. My cousin, because that's what he was no matter how distantly related we were. We were cousins. "You said I wouldn't be alone."

"Yeah I..." I sighed in defeat and fell in my couch. "Isobu is like a child, he wants a friend. You're not host of a monster, see it as a companionship, he'll be a great ally y'know?" He blinked.

"Mei-san didn't present it like that."

"I know, I'm probably the only one who considers bijuu as persons and not monsters. Because they're not, monsters don't have feelings or personality, right? But Isobu does and he's scared and I promised him I would find someone nice to him and that I'll protect him." I looked at Haku with puzzled eyes when he chuckled elegantly behind his hand. "Did I say something funny?"

"Only you Uzu-nee, only you would promise a bijuu to protect them." I half-heartly glared at him. "But I will do my best to befriend Isobu."

"And I'll do my best to keep you from being alone and isolated."

Having Naruto as a jinchuriki was enough, I didn't want Haku to become one too, but I didn't have any power over this. I hated to admit it, but I knew Haku was the best choice.

I would still seal Isobu grudgingly, but I would.

"So...Sasuke-kun is fine then?"

"Yes," Fugaku confirmed sternly, black eyes lingering on his oldest, who was staring at the tatami. "Itachi, you and Izumi will come to Kiri with me."

"Very well Father," Itachi told him. He stood up without a sound and left the room, then his house.

His hands in his pockets, he walked around the village. Sasuke was fine, because the Resistance of Kiri took him in, and Shisui was over there on a major mission, and Akane was a double agent ever since she went back there and he was still in Konoha, just...waiting.

He was waiting for orders when they could very well be slaughtered the next day.

He would go soon enough, with his father and Izumi, but meanwhile he was left behind. But when did Akane and Shisui bring him up to date instead of planning things between them? It was not he did not understand, because he did, but a part of him was reminding him of the times Akane lived in the village and how Shisui and her had secrets he was not a part of.

But when did Akane tell him important things anyway? Never.

Now Sasuke was with her because she was there for him when he wasn't.

Itachi bit his tongue at the bitter taste in his mouth, a familiar taste. Jealousy.

Jealousy toward Akane and her relationship with his brother. Sasuke, ever since she appeared in their lives, went to her first and not him when he needed to talk. Itachi fully understood that, Akane was older and not a part of the clan, she was looking after him so she was an easy confident who wouldn't tell him to feel or behave a certain way.

It didn't keep him from being jealous of her though, and he hated himself for these petty thoughts he had. Yet he kept having them, and knowing Akane had taken him in and probably scolded him as he needed to be made him jealous and almost angry. She had no right to scold him after all, she was no one.

Itachi stopped at the Naka Shrine and frowned at this thought. He was directing the anger he felt against himself toward his friend when she just...she just followed her orders after all.

"Itachi-kun?" He looked at Izumi, who smiled at him. "I've been looking for you everywhere! Aren't you happy your brother is fi..."

"We don't know that."

"What do you mean?"

"He still left willingly, who knows what he thinks of us, of Konoha now." Izumi took his hands in hers and smiled serenely at him. Her boyfriend did not answer though and kept staring at nothing instead. Izumi lost her smile and her eyes looked at the gray-stoned path under their feet.

"Is it because of her again?" With a pang at her heart, she noticed how Itachi seemed to twitch at that.

"Izumi, it's not..."

"Then what is it? I...I love you Itachi-kun, I have for years but why does every time that girl enters the picture you...you only care about her! I bet you know almost nothing about her too, so why!?"

"I know she cares," Itachi's voice snapped coldly at her.

"What else then? Please enlighten me, because I remember her barely giving a damn about you or Shisui-san when she was there!"

"Don't talk without knowing."

"Is that why you don't talk then? Because you don't know? I know she's your friend but...don't you think you should let go and move on? She's alive, good for her, but she's not there and most probably won't come back here. Please Itachi-kun, let it go like she clearly did."

"You're right," Itachi whispered and Izumi started to smile, but stopped when her boyfriend looked at her with pained eyes. "I need to let go, but not of her."

"Wh...what?" Izumi stuttered and she blinked rapidly, dreading his next words.

"I've put you through a lot because of Akane, but I know I won't stop caring about her, now more than ever. I'm sorry Izumi, but I don't think we should continue this relationship any longer." She blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes. Itachi tried to wipe them away but she slapped his hand. With one last furious and hurt glare, she ran away.

Itachi did not run after her. He didn't feel anything for her except friendship now, and it had been like that for a while.

For now, he needed to clear his head from his petty thoughts and focus on his next mission.

"What are those?" Haku asked me as he walked out of the bathroom. I had a brush in my left hand, my right sleeve rolled up to the elbow. There were a few drops of black ink on my table, but it didn't matter.

"Chakra storage seal, to boost me up in a fight if I'm lacking chakra. The thing is...it's not progressive, it takes all of the chakra I designed it to take right away. Do you think you could make me a snack please? I'm dizzy."

"Then three is the limit until you're rested enough," he told me, ordered me, as he walked into our small kitchen.

"Sir, yes sir!"

The ambiance, be it at home or at the hideout, was half excited and happy on how it was almost over, and half terrified of losing and the terrible consequences it would hae. Konoha was sending shinobi in Kiri too, not a lot but Jiraya-san, who was still at the hideout, didn't give sensei any choice so she accepted through gritted teeth.

Yagura was completely gone though. I couldn't see him anymore in the puppet's movements. I also had the bad feeling he was starting doubting my loyalty.

"Alright, attack," I told Sasuke when we were training in the hideout. He ran at me and kicked me, I stopped his foot with my forearm. He took his katana and I stopped his blade with mine, but sparks of lightning started dancing around his weapon. I smirked and gathered wind chakra in Nuibari, the sparks disappearing quickly. Sasuke scowled and barely blocked my foot by making an 'X' with his arms in front of him. Still, he slid backward and created a small cloud of brownish dust by doing so. "Hey, not bad!"

"Do you increase your strength with chakra?"

"Heh? Hum...I mean, in fights I've always had the tendency to use chakra to reinforce my muscles but it's nothing like Tsunade-san."

"I see," he drawled and I widened my eyes, making the tiger seal with my left hand to break the genjutsu he put me into. As the boxes behind Sasuke became ripped in half once again, I spun around and grabbed Sasuke's wrist, sparks of a weak Chidory grazing my face. I leaned backward and tried to kick him, but he dropped his sword and stopped me with his left hand.

"Aren't we in a tricky position now?" I snickered, and Mangetsu, who had been quietly watching so far, snickered too. Sasuke smirked haughtily and his Chidori flashed brighter. However, I placed an Immobility on his wrist and left it only on his arm, making it way too easy for me to force him digging in the floor with his jutsu. His puzzled expression on what happened and how it turned out so quickly into frustration was hilarious.

"Fuck!"

"Hey, language!"

"You swear like a trooper!"

"Yeah, but I grew up like that! Konoha's different, don't be like me!"

"Hn." I squinted at him. That little fucker. I opened my mouth to say something but Karin opened the door with enough strength to send it in the wall in a loud 'BANG'. She was out of breath.

"Karin?" I called her and joined her. I put my hands on her shoulders to make her look at me. "Calm down and talk."

"Nao...Naoto-san...fighting...chuunin..." I frowned. Naoto wasn't the kind of person to just get into a fight so… "...in the room...next to reu..." I nodded and left, Mangetsu gaining my side quickly.

"We agree it's not normal, right?"

"A hundred percent."

As we got closer and closer, we could hear voices screaming at each other. It wasn't...I couldn't recognize any of them, it was an intolerable hubbub.

"Just die already Karatachi!" an angry shinobi, his face scarlet because of his fury, spat at Naoto, who didn't say anything, but I noticed he contracted his jaw.

My eyes scanned the room. There were clearly two groups, and I cursed in my mind. It was one of my fear at the beginning, but it faded with time. However...it was clear it was a fight between lower class and others.

I, unfortunately, was part of the others. I quickly picked my side, like Mangetsu, when furious pairs of eyes found us.

"And even more cockroaches! I hope you'll die in the fight so that Kiri can be re-built on good foundations!" I stared at him in indifference, but I could feel some people getting agitated in my back. "All of you who did so much for Yagura-sama!"

"Because you've never done something you didn't want to do for him?" I shot back at him. All eyes turned to me and from the corner of my eyes, I saw Utakata-senpai sighing. "Don't speak as if you were innocent, we all suffered from his reign."

"What do you know about that!? You've only seen privileges since you came in that village you whore! You should have stayed out of here!" I raised a taunting brow at him, and from how he clenched his fists he didn't like it one bit.

"And you would have spied on the Mizukage in my place then? Please, before you start rambling about whether or not I should be here, look at what I've done and see if you could have done the same chuunin." I was talking back and it was far from being my smartest moment, but it was too late to stop.

"It's easy when you have tutors the entire way! How are we suppose to keep up huh!?"

"Last time I checked, Terumi Dai was from the lower class, with no clan yet he's one of the best shinobi of the village. If you want to do something, then do something instead of bitching on how you're powerless." He lost it and ran to me, people getting out of his way, and grabbed me by my collar.

"I can't stand you Uzumaki, you should have died years ago and you're still there! If you had died, then my brother would still be alive!" I blinked at him and he raised his fist to hit me. "Just your face makes me want to barf!"

As he started to throw a punch, a larger hand stopped it. I looked at my left and found Rahyō-san, eyes as cold as ice. He easily pushed the chuunin back, who stumbled on his feet and fell on his ass.

"We will soon be fighting against shinobi you used to fight with, don't fight between yourselves like children!" Rahyō-san roared and I hunched my shoulders. I had been acting like a child, I couldn't deny it.

"Bullshit," I mumbled under my breath. I turned around and my foot barely moved that I stopped in my tracks, my blood freezing in my veins.

"She should have died instead of her brother." I saw Naoto's eyes getting wider out of sudden, and he raised his hand to catch mine but I was already charging at the poor excuse of a chuunin who just got on his feet. He saw me, saw my eyes burning in anger and paled drastically.

I never reached him though. One moment I was trying to simply just hurt him, the next I was against the wall, sat against it and the bottom of Kubikiribocho, where it was in a moon shape, against my neck. It was the spot used for decapitations and it was just at my neck, blood dripping from my nose onto the blade.

"You're done acting like brats now?" Zabuza-san growled, mad eyes locked in mine even though the chuunin had his head in the hole of the blade, barely conscious. "If you get riled up that easily you should go cool off somewhere else Uzumaki."

I finally noticed how the crowd got larger, my chuunin staring at me, even if in Suigetsu's case he was also sending dark glares at the chuunin. Dai arrived at some point, with Karin and Sasuke. Shisui wasn't here, thanks God it would just make him right about Kiri and me, and Mangetsu seemed to have been on the verge of intervening. Naoto was staring at the floor and senpai seemed slightly happy it was finally over. Kimou was panicked though.

"Alright brats, show's over, move," Zabuza-san stated, leaving no room for conversation. He took his sword away from me. I didn't waste time and walked briskly out of the room.

The tips of my ears were still burning in shame. I let him get to me like a rookie for fuck's sake!

How was I supposed to know his brother was one of the two shinobi I killed for Yagura's sick death match!?

Not that I regretted killing him, it was that or my death. Did I feel bad? Kinda. Did I regret it? No, and I wasn't going pretend the opposite.

I stopped near the 'kitchen' and slid against the wall, one leg stretched out in front of me, the other one folded and my elbow was on my knee, my forearm dangling.

I liked to think of myself as someone who didn't let others get to her anymore, who grew out of that. But that chuunin knew just where to aim. And yet I knew the opinion people had of me was changing, it was incredible how just one negative thing could contaminate everything else.

"Hey." I raised glassy eyes to the Uchiha who sat next to me. Sasuke didn't say anything, he just...sat there.

"Sorry you had to witness such a pathetic show."

"Hn." Nice conversation. "I've been told of the situation in details, Mei-san explained it to me so that I could understand why you were all fighting. It's not just the tyranny, it's the cast system too."

"Yeah, I'm in between middle and higher-class myself, so I've never experienced the lower district by myself. It's the reason why Dai couldn't stand me when we became a team, I was way too privileged next to others. I truly realized how hard it was to have a full fridge when I started living on my own and..."

"You don't have to defend your case in front of me nee-san," Sasuke interrupted me calmly. I shot him a surprise glance and he shrugged. "I'm in no position to judge." I smiled a little and ruffled his hair. He shooed me off.

"It's doing you some good to help here, am I wrong?"

"No. It's making me realize that there was no war in the end," he whispered back to me. "My family and my village are still here and standing, they avoided a bloodshed unlike Kiri."

"They sure did." We stayed like that, in silence, for a couple of minutes, until Jiraya-san appeared out of nowhere.

"Terumi-san is scolding that chuunin, expect her to do the same to you later Akane-chan. In any case I have some news for the two of you." I exchanged a look with Sasuke. "I received words from Tsunade. She's preparing a small team to go in Kiri and fight, and Fugaku made one himself. He'll be here too." Sasuke went livid next to me. I draped my arm around his shoulders. "She'll send genin team to help with the civilians little by little. The first team should be here soon." I nodded and my nails almost dug in the soft flesh of Sasuke's shoulder.

"Thank you telling us Jiraya-san." He waved me off and left in a puff of smoke. "Sasuke, once Shisui is able to move without tripping over his own two feet, you should ask him to teach you the Body Flicker Technique."

"Hn." I sighed and got up, giving him a hand. He took it and got up too. "Father is taking Itachi, I know it."

"Well, I won't tell you otherwise, it's the best option available." As we parted ways, I let my thoughts wander. Jiraya-san was there, so Naruto was still in Konoha.

Shouldn't they have left on a trip together though?

Right, oji-chan said: stop trying to make things as they were before, try to make them better.

Everything didn't need to happen the same way.

The Uchihas were alive after all, and Sasuke not under Orochimaru's influence.

Hey! Thanks for reading! Please review so that I know you liked it :) Thanks to kankananime123, nevvy and salinagriego for the reviews. Remember nothing's set in stone yet :). Oh, and what's the fanfiction you're talking about nevvy? I'm interested!

Bye!