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
"Akane."
"For the hundredth time, if it's not about the coup, then it can wait until the end of the day that's coming. Or the end of this night," I snapped coldly at my godfather. He sighed behind me. My eyes remained close and I stood still, sat cross-legged on the floor of my own mind. Or seal.
"Fine." I smirked to myself in victory.
I had been 'tortured'. They were soft, they hit me but nothing more than bruises for now. They should know, Yagura knew I was tougher than that.
I didn't know what they were playing at, but I would outsmart them. In case of being compromised, sensei was clear. Handle it until you hear the Resistance attacking, and make your move. For now, there were guards in front of my cell. Funny enough, I wasn't in the regular cells, no. I had been for maybe an hour and then they moved me to the floating cells. Basically, there was a pool under me and sharks locked in cages on the side. I could see bones at the bottom of the pool. Me? I was in a cage barely the size of my body, handcuffed in my back keeping me fro using my chakra with my hands.
It looked like they forgot I could use my feet to make seals as well.
The cage was hanging from the ceiling by an old rusted metal chain that would grate every single time I made the slightest movement.
I went back to reality when my cage started going down.
"Come on Uzumaki, it's time for your bath again!" an anbu snickered. I didn't spare him a glance and breathed deeply.
The water was cold and dirty. My head was then pressed against the top of my cage.
I was soon underwater, not knowing when I would be able to breath again. I couldn't say how long it was, but my body started convulsing and tried to break free, my mind panicking at the idea of drowning. I fought my fear of water a long time ago, but I still thought drowning was the worst death I could have.
I gasped for air loudly when I was out of the water. I ignored their mocking laughter.
I needed to breath. I needed to calm down.
I was under water again five seconds later, and the struggle of above and under water lasted for too long. Literally, because the two left me underwater and left their posts. Alright, now or never.
I flexed my legs as much as I could to put my feet on the bars of the cage. They were blown up a second later and I left my cage.
My eyes went wide when the sharks were set free because of my actions though, and I still had blood on me. Being almost at the bottom of the pool, I swam faster than I had ever done in my entire life to the surface. Not giving me a break, I stood on the water and ran to the wall, running on it to reach the balcony. I jumped over the fence and sighed in relief, overjoyed at the fact I could breath in the dusty and wet air of the room.
"You have to move Akane," oji-chan reminded me.
"Oh shush you." I stood up on numb and shaking legs. I needed to get out of these handcuffs. For that I would need to...a senbon? I couldn't risk an explosive seal.
Come on Akane, think. Where did they put my stuff? I could summon kunai, but the blade was too big to break the lock and the handcuffs too solid to break with a kunai.
I ran to a dark corner of the room when one of them came back. He was stiffer than I before I think, and immediately went to the pool.
"What? Where is she?" I sneaked behind him, ready to attack, but stopped.
My body wasn't responding to me anymore. The anbu spun around and squeaked in surprise at my sight. I blinked at him.
Squeak?
"Akane-san, you almost killed him," a lazy voice said at the door. I turned my head against my will to see Shikamaru, and he turned his head again. I frowned and looked at the anbu.
"Ino is that you?" He nodded and crossed his fingers.
"Kai!" He fell to the floor and a female groan reached my ears. Shikamaru stopped his Shadow Imitation Jutsu and I fell onto my knees.
Alright, that shit was great to give you a panic attack. With the water torture and that, my heart was pounding too fast in my chest.
I jumped when the other anbu was sent in the pool.
"I'll remove these," Haku said in my back, working on the handcuffs as the anbu was screaming in agony. The sharks were eating him alive, and Ino, who now was up and with Chouji, paled drastically.
The handcuffs fell to the floor and I rubbed my sore wrists, my shoulders and arms numb from being pulled back for hours.
"Thanks guys, but why are you here? It's not the plan."
"We were after Suigetsu,Sasuke, Karin, Naruto and Sakura-san," my cousin informed me and I turned tired eyes to him. "They left after we heard about your mission."
"I'll kill them later," I whispered and stumbled once I was up.
"You need a medic," Shikamaru stated.
"No time, my stu..." Oh, Chouji smiled at me, showing me what was in his arms. "Oh...oh good, you're pretty good at saving people guys."
"Thanks," they answered in sync.
"There's everything?"
"Yes," Haku assured me. I closed my eyes and focused on Sasuke's marker. He was in the village and he wasn't moving. However, he was still pretty much alive.
Had he been caught? He wasn't that far though, just in…
"Huh, they got in by the ghost part of the town?" I asked them and they nodded. I made a shadow clone who took Ino's and Shikamaru's hand. I did the same with Chouji and Haku. "They, at least Sasuke, is not moving but alive."
"Captured?" Shikamaru inquired. I shook my head.
"I don't think so, I'm pretty sure they're at Suigetsu's." I teleported all of us there, at Sasuke's marker.
And they all jumped in surprise, especially Sasuke who grabbed his katana and pointed it at me, sharingan spinning in his eyes. They stared at us, dumbfounded, as I put the tip of my finger on Sasuke's blade and pushed it away from my carotid.
"You're all so troublesome," Shikamaru whined, crouching down. He was more relax though, like Ino, Chouji and Haku.
Sasuke started to move toward me, eyes wide in stupor, but Naruto beat him and threw himself into my arms. I slouched, hugging him back and probably keeping him from breathing.
"Is everybody alright?" Chouji asked them. They all said yes.
"How come we're the one who ended up helping Akane-sensei?" Ino asked them curiously. They shared a defeated look.
"We were kept here against our will," Suigetsu grunted, his hands behind his head. I glared at him and he gulped. Just as he said that, a man with an eye-patch and blue hair entered the room. I sighed in relief.
"Thanks Ao-san."
"It was nothing, Mei-san managed to warn me just in time for me to catch them."
"Hey, that guy put kunai at Karin's and Sakura-chan's throat!" Naruto complained, raising his head toward me. I flicked his nose.
"But they're fine, aren't they?" I choked when someone hugged my neck in my back. Then, whitish blond hair was tickling my cheek. "Kimou? You're here too?"
"Yes love, I am!" I rolled my eyes and I plugged one of my ear when Naruto started telling her off. Kimou, of course, being herself, talked back. I went to Sasuke's side, who had the biggest deadpan ever.
"Worried about me?" I teased him with a weak smirk. He snorted and looked away.
"You got compromised idiot." He was angry.
"Sorry?"
"Hn." He looked at me up and down from the corner of his eyes. "You seem to be fine."
"I've been better, but I'm not too bad. Karin, you took some healing seals with you?" She nodded and I grabbed my stuff from Chouji.
Once locked in the bathroom with Karin, she asked me to undress, only leaving my underwear on. She inspected the bruises on my skin and palpated some spot, her left hand adjusting her glasses mechanically. I winced when she pressed her cold fingers on the side of my stomach.
"It looks like a minor internal bleeding." I closed my eyes, letting her placing various paper tags on me. The warm chakra soothing my aching body made my eyelids heavier. Karin shook me out of my drowsiness. "Don't fall asleep Uzu-nee!"
"Sorry...what time is it?"
"Three and a half in the morning, we received your report approximately four hours ago." Huh, it seemed...an eternity ago.
It seemed like it was an eternity ago I witnessed my best friend stopping breathing.
I jumped on my feet and grabbed my black pants. I was going to put my black shirt back on but Karin stopped me.
"Maybe you should fix your bandages." I blinked and looked down at my left arm. It was damped and tearing apart, leaving some skin in sight.
"Yeah, tell Sasuke I need him, alone." She nodded and left in the blink of an eye. I took off the bandages and raised a brow. The symbols...they weren't on my hands before, were they? At least, before Raiga…never mind. I cleaned my face and neck from the dry blood there still was with a wet clothes. Sasuke entered the bathroom without knocking as I was splashing cold water on my face to wake me up. "I need a hand for my bandages."
"Hn." I dried my face and sat back on the toilet seat, Sasuke's hand firmly wrapped around my left wrist, holding my arm up. None of us talked while he bandaged my arm to hide the marks, but his eyes were conflicted.
"I've never thanked you, did I?" He raised confused eyes to me. "For saving my life in Uzushio, and for not asking anything about what happened when you must have wondered what the hell I was doing." His eyes found the scar on my arm. Scar he caused. "It's a small price to pay."
"Will you tell me one day? What it was?"
"I don't know Sasuke, it's a clan's secret. Shit, it's a secret within the clan's secrets."
"But it won't hurt you, will it?" I shrugged.
"I'm not sure. For now I'm fine." He finished the bandages and I ruffled his hair. He shooed my hand away, so I put my black shirt back on, followed by my gray flak jacket. I tied my holster to my right thigh, my back pouch to my waist and took the scroll I grabbed back at my place.
"It's really not the moment to dress up," Sasuke reminded me dryly in my back. I ignored him and delicately, I slipped the haori on. It reached my knees and was a deep red, the burgundy at the bottoms of the sleeves, so at my wrists, strangely more vibrant. The piece of clothing was baggy and supple, yet resistant, allowing the fight to be easier. The collar was high, too much to my liking, and it was itching my cheek. On my back was the Uzumaki clan's crest, but not only. Sasuke put his finger on the emblem under the Uzumaki's. "A snowflake?"
"The Yuki clan's crest." It was a pale blue in a black circle. Haku could sew, who knew. "I'm not playing dressing up by the way, it's symbolic. The Yuki clan was the first to be slaughtered in Kiri, I'm pretty sure my grandfather was executed in public to serve as an example. It's like, revenge is best served cold, you had it coming and now we're here to put a term to the Bloody Mist and everything it did to start up fresh.
"Ah."
"Yep," I retorted, mentally thanking Haku for taking my old forehead protector. I tied it tightly around my forehead, still flattening the stubborn lock of auburn hair between my eyes until the side of my nose. However, my hair in general was a little bit longer than just shoulder-length.
For once, I placed Nuibari on my back. They didn't take it, probably because they didn't really know where it was in all of my seals.
The scratch in the metal on my head gave me a faint smile. I quickly checked the chakra seals on my right arm. I had seven.
"Well Sasuke," I told him, noticing how his bangs were not parted anymore but just falling on his forehead, how his hair seemed flatter at the back like old Sasuke. "I'm ready to go."
"You're going after the Mizukage then?" I mused at that as we walked down the stairs. "Alone?"
"The aim is not the murder of a Kage Sasuke," I admitted to him. He raised his brows. "No, I'm going after him because I'm the most used to fighting him but also because I'll break the genjutsu."
"It's a Sharin..."
"Still a genjutsu. Every techniques have a weakness, Sharingan or not, this genjutsu does too and I'm gonna find it and shatter it." We joined the others. Ao-san had his arms crossed over his chest, his eye close, as Kimou was looking through the window.
It was then I noticed it. The heavy and thick genjutsu surrounding the house.
"Ao-san, what's the plan now?"
"State of your fighting skills?"
"I'll push it to a hundred and fifty percent." No, I didn't really answer his question, because it was not important.
"I see. Mei-san has been clear in her message. Wait for the diversion and then we'll make sure the genin reach their comrades to evacuate the civilians. You already know your part."
"Okay."
"What!?" Naruto exploded. "We're here and we can fight, let us..." I knocked him on the head. He rubbed the sore spot. "Nee-chan!"
"Naruto, remember how Konoha was during the Chuunin Exams?" The atmosphere dropped in temperature and my cousin's eyes narrowed in sorrow. He nodded in silence. "Good, remember how Gaara was a tough opponent? How the Sandaime died against Orochimaru? Well this is going to be the same, if not worse. You guys are all genin, and not from this village. You're here to protect the civilians that were hurt during all of this shinobi bullshit. Us, shinobi who started to rebel, will fight, but we can't do it if we don't have the assurance these innocent people aren't safe and sound away from here. Don't waste your life for our fight."
"But I want to help you!" I sighed softly and took his chin between my fingers. I raised his face toward me enough for my lips to kiss his forehead, raising his headband at the same time.
"Naruto, I'm begging you, go. I won't be able to look at Mom if something happened to you."
"Well I won't be able to look at her either if something happened to you! Let me help you!" I shot a look at Ao-san, ignoring how everyone was watching us. Ao-san shook his head in negation.
"No."
"But nee..."
"What if I stayed with him?" I raised a brow at Haku. What...did he have in mind? "Would it be okay? Karin could take his place and she'll be better at detecting possible threats than Naruto-kun."
"If the loser is staying I'm staying too," Sasuke decided behind me. I shot him a betrayed look but he didn't quiver at it.
"Jounin and anbu, we're mainly going against jounin and anbu, it's really not the time to act like brats!" I snapped at the two. However, they glared back, clearly not taking 'no' for an answer. "Ao-san, say something!"
"You're going with no protests?" he asked the other genin and Shikamaru. I gaped at him as they all said 'yes'. "Good." I furrowed my brows in confusion.
"What?"
"It's Haku," Zabuza said, staring intently at the ice surrounding the seal. "Something's not right with the seal."
"I gave the model myself," Harusame refuted, walking toward him. He narrowed his eyes at the seal. "Was it...altered?"
"Wow, you still have sharp eye Harusame-san!" The group, consisting of Konoha, Kakashi and Asuma now included, Zabuza, Harusame, Utakata, Mei, Dai, Chōjūrō, Naoto and a few other Kiri shinobi, turned around. Ushio waved at them with a taunting smirk. "Oh my, the Terumis grew up, Utakata and Naoto too."
"Are you here to fight against us Ushio-san?" Naoto asked him sharply, stepping forward between Izumi and a brown haired Konoha anbu.
"Well, your dad hired us to get rid of you guys."
"No, he didn't. He wouldn't have hired you or have any contact with you." Ushio's eyes became sly.
"Oh? What are you implying?"
"I don't know, you tell me." The Uzumaki's smirk vanished.
"You grew up into a fine and smart young man Naoto, but I'm done with the talking now." He raised a hand and a water dragon rose from the canal. "Suiton: Water Dragon Bullet Technique."
"Doton: Earth Style Wall!" The dragon crashed against the wall. Said wall crumbled when the dragon disappeared and Naoto cursed, pink eyes glaring at the chains around him.
"Here I thought Yagura and I taught you better than that!" Ushio frowned at the smirk on the young man's lips. Then, in a fraction of seconds, he looked down. He looked at Jiraya and the rasengan in his hand.
"Rasengan!" The orb touched the target, however it couldn't do all the damages intended as Ushio teleported himself a few meters back, an Hiraishin mark on the ground around them. The missing-nin was breathing heavily, the cloak destroyed at his abdomen, leaving his gray shirt in plain sight. "You still have good reflexes."
"This technique brings back bad memories," he growled in anger.
"Go join the other Naoto," Jiraya ordered the anbu. "I take care of him."
Naoto nodded and left.
Now inside the village, Dai looked at his sister.
"It's okay to leave the only Sannin of the group behind?"
"He is the one who decided to stay behind," Fugaku said coldly, "Jiraya-sama knows what he is doing."
"What is the plan now?" Kakashi asked Mei.
"There are three buildings we need to take back: the hospital, the Kage building and the weapon factory. A portion of the diversion group will take care of the weapon factory. Zabuza will lead the group for the Kage building and I'll lead the one for the hospital. Hatake-san, Sarutobi-san, you..." An explosion was heard behind them. The fight causing the diversion at the north could be heard from their position, but then a giant turtle with three tails appeared in the west part of the village. "Already?"
"The Sanbi?" Itachi whispered with a frown. "Under control?"
"The Mizukage is a jinchuriki who controls his bijuu," Zabuza told them flatly.
"Hn, Izumi, Shisui, follow the group to the Kage building. Itachi, you and I will join the hospital group. Cat, with us and Aburame with them," Fugaku ordered them. Nobody contradicted him.
"Utakata, you know your role, right?" The Rokubi jinchuriki nodded. "Then find Akane."
They all dispersed.
"The letter? Why?"
"Just do it Akane."
As I was at the end of the group with Kimou, the sound of the diversion as a background, I took the letter Haku took at home. I opened it, careful of the picture with it.
"The symbol, at the bottom. Use it." I did, understanding it was a seal of some sort I had never noticed before, and found myself staring with wide eyes at the kunai in my hand. Three blades, the central one bigger than the two at its sides, and a formula I had not seen in years. "I thought having it applied somewhere would help you understanding it better."
"Heh, never thought you'd be stuck with me."
"Pretty much." He stayed silent for a couple of seconds and I heard him sigh in my head. "It's better if I stay back for the time being so that you can focus, but be careful."
"I'll do my best to survive, and make sure Naruto does too." I clenched the kunai in my fist.
"What's that?" Kimou asked me with curiosity. I flashed her a confident grin that actually made her blush. Her crush on me was a tough one apparently.
"A memory, from the time I spent in Konoha as a child."
"Oh. Was it when you met the Uchiha?"
"Shisui?"
"Yes, Dai and him were fighting like brats and he tried to bring up the fact he knew you since you were four and half, but Dai said he knew you since you were in diapers."
"But they kept going because one of them just had to win?"
"Men," she simply said as a matter of fact. I chuckled and stopped like the rest of the group as we were about to enter the middle-class district.
"Alright, it's time to separate!" Ao-san told us. "Kimou, take the genin to the evacuation. Haku, with Suigetsu, and now Sasuke and Naruto because they're not moving from here, you'll activate the seals in the mountains to block the exit. Uzumaki..."
"I know, it's time to play cat and mouse with Yagura. Hopefully Utakata will join me soon." Yeah, who was better to help kick a jinchuriki's butt than our another local jinchuriki?
"Fine, scatter!"
I jumped on a building and made the Tiger Seal. Yagura...where was his marker? In the village for sure, but I had difficulty to get a clear connection. The marker was here, but...something was almost blocking it.
Until it was not and a violent wind blew across the village, the subtle hint of chakra in it.
Yagura was in Isobu's form, near where the diversion was happening.
Crap, I needed to get him to the lower class district before fighting him. I needed to distract him.
I needed his attention all on me.
I teleported to two markers consecutively and, with chakra under my feet, ran up the mountain. I still couldn't use the Hiraishin more than three times in a row without my legs giving up on me. Once I was at the highest point, I spun around to face the village. I could see smoke at the north and lights on the way to the three main sites to take over. At the south of the village, I could see black spots, spots being the genin and civilians evacuating.
Finally, I set my eyes on Yagura. My heart broke a little at Isobu whipping his tails around, destroying buildings like castles of cards. I made a mental note to myself that my place was actually close to where he was. I clenched my fists and pushed back any feelings of guilt I could have on fighting Yagura who wasn't even himself.
"I don't know if the guy who's controlling Yagura is listening or even here at the moment," I started in a cold voice, "but I swear on my brother's grave I will make you pay."
I took a deep breath.
"YAGURA!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. The weird connection between the Shinigami seal and a jinchuriki must have amplified my voice to him, because Isobu's single eye found me. He slammed his front paws, similar to hands, on the ground and I felt the shock wave it caused from my spot. He growled loudly, causing wind to lash my face. "Good, you know I'm here for you now."
My eyes widened in shock when dark purple chakra gathering in front of his mouth. It grew, and grew in a Bijuu Bomb bigger than I was used to in the second bijuu mode.
"Take a kunai, same hand seals than for the Hiraishin but instead of making yourself the target, expand like a wall in front of you."
"Like my storage seals?"
"Exactly like that. Mangetsu and Suigetsu put some markers in the sea, throw it there, it will be big."
I gulped and grabbed a kunai as the bomb was thrown my way. It destroyed the buildings in front of it like sandcastles. It was coming fast and I ignored my panic like I could as I went through the hand seals quickly but as precisely as I could.
I wasn't Minato, I would never be Minato but...but I knew the Hiraishin.
Once the hand seals done, I grabbed the handle of the kunai and stretched out my arm. The seal expanded into thin air in front of me, and it was with gritted teeth I pushed myself to expand it more, digging in my chakra even more. My right hand grabbed my left arm to keep it steady as the bijuu bomb was stopped in the seal and sucked into it, thin air distorting like when something was pushing in a sheet.
Once it was completely sucked in, I localized the marker the furthest from Kiri, the one Mangetsu wanted to put the furthest from the village for big stuff.
Huh...he was right about that one.
I released it miles away from the village, and as I felt the explosion behind me, I was short-winded. I still had chakra, thanks Uzumaki reserves and I had my chakra storage seals, but still...creating such a big seal with no hard surface required a lot of chakra, then activating it to suck in so much chakra and released far away was...it was tiresome.
I stopped breathing for a moment when I felt a chakra appearing out of nowhere right behind me. I spun around, my kunai ready to hit the guy.
Dread pooled inside of my stomach when my kunai went through his head. Cold sweat ran down my back at the sight of his orange mask. There was no red clouds.
Just...him. Him I wasn't expecting to see.
"No." I didn't ask oji-chan what he had, because the air started swirling around the hole for his eye, the red of the Sharingan briefly catching my attention before I teleported myself away. I fell harshly, face first, on the ground at the rocky plateau I used to train with Yagura.
"What?"
"It's a test, I think everything is a test for him. He's testing you Akane."
"But why?" The swirling appeared once again, a few meters in front of me.
"I don't know, but the bijuu, you teleporting the Tailed Beast Ball, him trying to take you away...it's the same scenario." A drop of sweat slid down my temple as he fully materialized in front of me. "It's the Kyuubi attack all over again, he's reproducing the scenario of that night Akane. He's going to fight you!"
"I can't run like I used huh," I whispered harshly to myself. No Akatsuki cloak, just black clothes with a sort of gray thick scarf or collar. And his orange mask. However, his chakra...his presence had nothing from the faint memories I had from Obito, but his chakra...there was the faintest tint of warmth in it, caused by his fire type. It was...all I could see from Obito-nii. "So...should I call you Master?"
"It's like the night the Kyuubi attacked," Fugaku said, Isobu throwing his bomb toward the mountain.
Itachi felt his mouth becoming dry like a desert when he saw the red spot in front of the attack. Before he could say anything, Kakashi placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Don't you worry Itachi, she can handle it." As if on cue, black fuin symbols appeared in thin air and sucked in the attack. "See? Sensei would be proud if he could see it."
"Naruto is not the only one who took after Minato," his father added and Itachi blinked.
He knew Akane was a kunoichi, that she had known the Fourth Hokage very well and he knew she kept training in Konoha. Unlike Shisui, he always knew she wasn't weak. He wasn't all that surprised she knew the same techniques than the Fourth Hokage.
But she was eighteen, almost nineteen. Itachi knew she wasn't to be taken lightly, but she wasn't a genius. It was a good thing though, but she wasn't a genius like the Fourth had been. So how…
What was the missing piece in the puzzle that was Akane to make him understand how fast she had progressed? Not that he had had an idea of her level but…but he just knew she shouldn't be at this level that young.
Just...what was he missing?
Suddenly, the Sanbi was covered in white smoke. When it vanished, he wasn't there anymore.
"The Fourth went back to his human form," Mei told them. "Let's go!"
Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks to kankananime123 and NguyetMieu for the reviews. And no, ShisuixAkane is not the official pairing, sometimes it may seems that way, some other times it may seems like ItachixAkane, but with how I picture the Shippuden era, there won't be any final pairings for a long while, and I'm really tempted to write different endings for the two pairings because both of them have their chances :)
Bye!