Disclaimer: I own the OCs in this fic, the rest is Masashi Kishomoto's. Sorry for any spelling mistakes or any OCCness.
Character age:
Akane, Itachi: 20
Naruto, Sasuke: 15
Shisui: 24
Kakashi: 29
I ignored Sasuke's gulp when he felt his Mangekyou being unlocked by me.
"Akatsuki," I stated coldly. The jounins, Kegon and Yōrō, looked at me seriously and after a nod, one of them went to Fū.
"Let's go to that rock for now."
"Heh, it's annoying!" she complained but we all jumped out of the forest to reach a rocky plateau in a mountain.
"We don't know who you are, but we've been onto you for a while now!" One of the Akatsuki duo appeared in front of us and I frowned. They were two I had never seen before, and from what I had been told...they were Hidan and Kakuzu. Hoshigaki-san used to call them the Zombie Duo.
Oh joy. Hidan...was the one who killed Asuma-san too.
"HERETIC!" The one with silver hair shouted, pointing an accusing finger at me. "JASHIN-SAMA WON'T FORGIVE THE HERETICS!" His partner didn't even have the time to say anything that I was blocking Hidan's scythe with my club. I slid my foot back. That guy was physically strong, stronger than me.
"Get..." I started, stopping mid-sentence when I blocked another blow. "Fuck, get out of here!" I managed to throw a marked kunai to Fū before finally pushing back. I crouched, avoiding the scythe going in the wall and dropping my club, and unsealed Nuibari.
I grabbed the end of the thread, the others leaving and Kakuzu following them, threw my blade between two blades, grabbed it when it fell back and pulled. Once I had his weapon, I threw it in the forest down below.
I body flickered on the wall when he made the scythe come back to him and slashed the air where I was a moment ago.
"You fucking bitch, I'll kill you in the name of Jashin-sama! Heretics will be slaughtered!" However...it seemed like that guy wasn't the smartest one.
I made a few hand seals and said: "Hiding in the Mist Technique." I spat mist and he cursed at me.
My club still at his feet, I teleported to the mark at the back of the flower. I heard his scythe slicing the mist above me. I bit the inside of my cheek when it injured my arm but I avoided it nonetheless.
"You must be dumb as shit," I started, grabbing the metal cable between the scythe in him, "to go up against me in close combat. Dad and Hoshigaki-san told you nothing or what?" I exploded the cable and with my Wild Water Wave, threw the scythe away for good.
"What the fuck could they have told me!? Wait, 'Dad'?" Even with the mist, I stood up and deadpanned at him and his disbelieved expression.
"Ushio? I'm his daughter?" He made a stupid face, which turned into shock, and gawked like an idiot.
"You're the Bijuu Tamer Kakuzu wanted to kill to get the bounty!" I nodded and kicked him in the chest, placing an explosive seal on his rib cage. I pushed him from the plateau and made him explode. As I dispersed the mist, I looked with pity at the moron falling down.
"Well, the Akatsuki doesn't recruit on intelligence, do they?" It was anticlimactic for sure.
I grabbed my club and placed it back on my back, ready to go to Sasuke, when I felt Hidan's chakra down there. I frowned.
Zombie duo huh...I was sure my seal at least exploded a lung.
Nuibari in my hand, I made my way down thanks to the trees. I stayed in the lowest one and widened my eyes when that Hidan was getting up, complaining that he was in pain.
"Hey bitch!" he yelled at me as I jumped down. "It hurts you know!"
"No shit Sherlock." He pulled a blade like weapon from his sleeve and ran to me. I took marked kunais and threw them at him, who avoided them easily. My weapon clashed with his once again and he was a lot faster and rougher to deal with than before.
I grimaced when I felt his weapon digging in the wound on my arm. He grinned like a mad man and jumped back, making sure to place a lot of distance between us. Then, he started to trace a symbol with his blood.
Not today.
"Fuuton: High Winds Technique!" He was thrown back in the wall behind, breaking it, by the wind I had no guilt in making way stronger than usual. He stumbled forward when the jutsu stopped, but was still standing. "Okay, I get it now…you're a real pain in the ass."
"You can't kill me you bitch! And now I know you're related to that asshole Ushio, I'll take my time!" He licked the blood there was on his weapon and I frowned.
What did the book say already?
"They do not associate with each other," the Nidaime reminded me calmly.
"So...a guess on what it means?" I replied in my mind, watching him going back to the symbol. I threw Nuibari, that he deflected easily, but with the thread I made it go around a tree and back to him, piercing his arms and torso like butter. My blade dug itself in an another tree.
"In any case, he licked your blood Akane," oji-chan pipped up. "It can't be good." Well, I couldn't agree more. I pulled back on my thread, the part in Hidan slicing him open and I pulled Nuibari back to me too. Blood poured freely from his wound and he laughed madly.
A masochist huh…
"His partner, he tried to kill my brother in the past."
"So this Kakuzu was alive back in your time?"
"Obviously, he failed, but he shouldn't be alive in this era. The way she called them 'Zombie Duo' is not good."
"It's how Hoshigaki-san call them." I made other hand seals. "Hyōton: Blizzard Breath!" How I wish I had Fubuki's technique down by now, but I still didn't understand just how… "You know, I'm not even the most sadistic one in any of my teams, but somehow you woke up that side of me.
Yagura told me once. The Yuki clan was feared because they could control ice. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind was turning water in ice. It was the easiest part. However, it was not just ice, it was the coldness we controlled. I was too far from him right now, but I cooled him down enough.
The Yuki clan could freeze water.
How sad it was the human body was seventy percent water, wasn't it?
It was the main reason why we were the first clan to be slaughtered. With the cool and humid weather in the Land of Water...we were as much home with our Kekkei Genkai as the Hōzukis.
Right now...he was cold enough.
"Hyōton: Freezing Technique – Frost Spikes!" He screamed in pain when spikes of ice grew out of him. Blood was dripping from the tip of the spikes.
"I said it hurts bitch!"
"For fuck's sake, can't you just bite the dust already!?" I glared as his skin turned black and white and his grin grew wider.
"You...YOU BITE THE DUST NOW!" He stabbed himself in the heart. I widened my eyes for a second, feeling something trying to stab me in the chest but the cold energy of the Shinigami was pushing it away. I placed a hand on my heart.
Not a scratch.
'Do not associate with each other' huh...if I was immune to his weird technique like it seemed I was then…
"Most likely, this 'Jashin-sama' he's speaking about will keep you from stealing his soul." I nodded at oji-chan. Yep, seemed about right.
However, Hidan's face turned scarlet in anger.
"YOU FUCKING HERETIC HOW DARE YOU IGNORE JASHIN-SAMA AND SPIT ON HIM HUH!?" I spat on the ground and it pissed him off even more, making me smirk.
"If I can't kill you...I'll just have to incapacitate you, right?"
"You can pull off something with that sword and the Hiraishin," the Nidaime advised me. I hummed.
"Good idea."
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING TO YOU CRAZY BITCH!?" I threw Nuibari again and he deflected it.
However, this time, I was using the Hiraishin to follow my weapon.
"The fuc..."
Thread around his right leg. Then around his left leg, then each of his arms, then his neck. I threw Nuibari behind him and had him immobilized, the thread in one hand, my sword in the other.
"Oi, oi...you won't dare!"
"Dude, I was Karatachi Yagura's apprentice," I shot back coldly. "You have no idea of what I dare do." On this, I pulled back, slicing his limbs and head off his body in a beautiful rain of red. Some of the blood splashed on my toes.
All of the pieces fell on the ground and I sighed.
"Sorry for the show."
"Kiri," the Nidaime said as oji-chan stayed silent. I knew he didn't like seeing me doing that but...whatever.
I walked up to the remains and stared at the head for a couple of seconds. I kept myself from groaning when he opened his eyes, a vein pulsing on his temple.
"HOW DARE YOU HUH!?" I put the top of the head on the ground, leaving me the joy to see all of the muscle, bones and veins I sliced with my thread. "JASHIN WILL..." He didn't finish this sentence I stuck my sword in the head, keeping his mouth shut. I pulled Nuibari up and stared at him in the eyes with a deadpan. He was glaring daggers at me, trying to speak.
"Take a hint when someone wants you to shut up." I teleported to a marker I had placed before and dropped the head down. Before he could say anything, I forced his mouth opened and cut off his tongue with my kunai, blood dripping from my hands by now. "Honestly, I think even the Akatsuki won't resent me for cutting your tongue off."
I went back to the body and spread the different limbs away from each other, picking up my markers at the same time. As I was leaving the first arm, I turned around when I felt lighting in the air. I had not noticed the cloudy sky before but…
"Kirin," I muttered at the dragon of lighting falling down from the sky. I unconsciously exploded the arm still in my hand, pieces of bones and flesh flying around. I felt a piece of bone grazing my cheek, making a small cut, and I dropped the rest of the bloody mess in my hand, discarding what I was doing, and joined Sasuke.
The first thing I thought of the place was: messy. One of the two jounins was lying a few meters away, clearly dead from the lack of chakra and puddle of blood around him. I shot a look back. The other jounin was hurt, holding his broken leg like he could. Fū was unconscious on the ground, some patches of skin burned. She must have lost control when the guy with curly hair died.
I looked up and frowned at the ugly wings in Sasuke's back.
Second Stage.
I spotted Kakuzu, no cloak on and a black mass limp behind him. Another went limp and Sasuke went back on the ground.
I raised a brow at the hand on the ground, black flames still burning on the weird tendrils connected to the wrist.
"Hidan lost I guess." Sasuke looked at me above his shoulder. I walked in front of him and showed Kakuzu Hidan's tongue.
"Want it back? He pissed me off too much." I threw the piece of meat on the ground, in front of him, but he ignored it. "I was hurt he didn't even recognize me."
"Nee-san, he needs to be killed multiple times," Sasuke whispered to me. "I...I had him once but..."
"Get back Sasuke, I'll take care of him." He opened his mouth but stopped himself from speaking when he saw my bloody state. I put Nuibari away.
"I am nothing like Hidan," he warned me, one of his hand reattaching itself to his arm.
"I hope so, he was dumb as shit."
"I can't say the opposite."
"So...he told me you wanted my bounty?" He stared harder and I smirked. "Come and get it then, old man." One of the black mass stepped in front of him, and the mask expelled a powerful wind. I made hand seals. "Suiton: Water Shockwave!" Water appeared out of thin air in front of me and quickly I made another seal as the water was much higher than us. "Hyōton: Freezing Technique!" It froze and I had to focus chakra in my feet to keep myself from moving. The ice was shielding us from the wind, but it blew away the trees around.
I made two shadow clones, one staying in hiding and the other going to the group to make a barrier.
Right now, I was very glad to be almost as old as a Sannin, I would have been crushed without the experience otherwise.
I climbed the ice and looked down at him once on top. I melted the ice a little on top, just under where I was, half of it turning into water.
"Suiton: Double Dragon Bullet Technique!" Two water dragons rose and attacked him. He avoided the blows and how it destroyed the ground with agility. Another beast spat out a powerful fire that destroyed the water dragons. I didn't even have the time to freeze them!
As the fire was now directed at me, I blew out my blizzard. However, I noticed lighting coming on my right side.
My clone used the High Wind Technique to counter it, but even though the lighting didn't reach me, they didn't disappear. My clone did, and the lightning beast was about to come at me until it catches fire.
Black flames. This one was down then. I watched it fall forward on the ground.
From what I had seen, each beast had an element. The lightning one was burning, the wind and fire ones were down there, next to another one. Sasuke said he destroyed one before I got there.
"You can still fight after all?" I asked Sasuke as he arrived next to me, panting heavily and his eyes bleeding. "Enough with the Mangekyou, but thanks for that one."
"I destroyed the earth one with Kirin."
"Chakra?"
"Not so much left," he admitted.
"You can throw kunais?" He nodded and I shot a look behind me. "Huh, Taki seems to have noticed the fight. You almost had that technique controlled a few days ago, right?"
"Yeah," he said, his hand in his back pouch. He pulled out a dozen of kunai out of it, each with a paper tag wrapped around the handle. "I'll master it right now." I gave him one of my marked kunai. I raised my right hand for him to high-five. He did, and I smirked when I felt him sealing a Chidori in the palm of my hand. I made another clone and gave her Umi's scroll to summon.
"Let's do this then," I said before jumping down. Once I was down, I made a Water Mirror that sent a replica of the fire beast. Burning heat whipped my face and I widened my eyes when Kakuzu was in front of me.
"I have to admit, it has been a while since I felt the thrill of fighting an Uzumaki." He grabbed my throat and raised me from the ground. My hands automatically grabbed his wrist.
I put an Immobility Seal on his limb. He widened his eye and his hand and arm detached from each other as I threw his hand away. From the corner of my eyes I saw the wind beast ready to attack as Adamantine Chains wrapped themselves around it. My clone then appeared, ready to strike, but was killed by another beast.
It was getting long. The fight was getting long.
Finally Sasuke managed to get his kunai around Kakuzu.
"Raiton: Thunder Prison!" Blue lightnings erupted from the tags, surrounding Kakuzu and already attacking the nerves. He tensed and grunted in pain. However, I couldn't teleport to him as a wave of water was coming my way.
"Hell no!" It was just, too just, but I managed to freeze it. I jumped on it. "Suiton: Wild Water Wave!" I gathered wind chakra and my water pierced through his, piercing the mask too. I body flickered and put the Chidori through this mask.
I teleported to Sasuke and watched it go limp on the ground. There were...two to go, and Kakuzu.
It was…
It was…
Sasuke dropped on one knee and I was panting. The lightnings disappeared.
"Although it is entertaining, it seems like you're both reaching your limits." Damn...I didn't have chakra seals on my arm, I had not drawn one since Yagura. I couldn't possibly use the Claw either because...because there was a weird chakra watching the whole fight.
He looked toward my ice wall. Taki was right behind it, with Fū and Yōrō. Umi disappeared and went home, her chains following and the two remaining beasts went back in Kakuzu's back.
"It's only a matter of time," he told us before running away. I caught Sasuke before he passed out on the ground.
"Why the shirtlessness?" I muttered at an unconscious Sasuke. He was shirtless.
"Are you hurt!?" some shinobi from Taki asked us as they ran as us.
"Tired," was all I managed to say. They tried to pry Sasuke from me but I adjusted his arm on my shoulders. "I'll...I can carry him."
All the way to the entrance of Taki, there were two shinobi behind me to make sure I wouldn't pass out. Then, once we arrived, there was a man around my age in front of the giant waterfall. He stared in shock at me, or more like Sasuke.
"Sasuke-san?" He looked at the shinobi. "Get them in my house and bring enough medics for all of them!"
"Yes Shibuki-sama!" So he was the chief then...He scooped Fū in his arms.
At this point, I let them take Sasuke from me and followed without a word.
"Can I come in?" I shot a quick look at Fū and nodded. She closed the door behind her and sat close to me, who was against the wall next to a sleeping Sasuke. He was exhausted, probably some ocular exhaustion too, but he wasn't too injured.
I would ask him how his vision was though.
"How is Sasuke-san?"
"Exhausted, but he'll pull through. He had worst."
"And you?" I looked at my right hand, bandaged because the Chidori burned me once again. I had a bandage around my arm too and the cut on my cheek had a band-aid on.
"Good considering the scale of this fight." I had not been in such a fight since Yagura and Obito. Although Obito had not been planned, Yagura was, and it was prepared.
This? This had not been. This had been scary and pure instinct, my brain and body working, reacting like the weapon Obito had molded me into. Now I understood why exactly he did that, I understood it more than the day he asked me to join him.
The way I fought against Hidan, how I had not bat an eye when I sliced him up…
Even today, even out of the ANBU, even with getting missions not needing a lot of fighting, I was close to be the weapon he wanted. If...if it was someone from the Akatsuki who was watching us, maybe even him then...they were probably laughing right now.
"But you've almost beat Kakuzu!"
"No," I denied. She blinked sheepishly at me. "On the moment...I thought my decisions were good and I work well with Sasuke, but he had not even used his main body. I could have used the Claw but...we were being watched." I exhaled slowly. "It was...rough, I have no idea if we could have won." I crossed my arms, the blue fabric of the kimono top I was wearing soft against my skin. The sleeves were long and wide and they had given me black cotton pants.
"So...this was the Akatsuki..." she whispered with a conflicted face. "Why...why do you tell us? About them?"
"Because no matter the time, I keep having at least one jinchuriki in my family." She gasped at that. "Because in this second chance I turned a cousin I saved from a certain death into one and hung a sword of Damocles on his back." I clenched my fists on my thighs. "Because I failed saving my Master who was one. Because I should have been one myself. Because you're not weapons and why can't people just understand that?"
"People fear what they don't understand and will act accordingly to it," Sasuke said tiredly, his eyes still closed. "You told me that."
"It's annoying. How do you feel?" He opened his eyes a little.
"Tired, I can't move for now. Where…?"
"Taki, you passed out and we started to go here." He closed his eyes once again.
"I see." I raised a brow when his breathing slowed down, sign he was sleeping.
"Do you know if Shibuki read the letter?" I asked Fū, who shrugged.
"I don't know but he has been locked in his office with other important people since yesterday." He must have read the letter then but...Taki was not a big village, the stakes were not the same for it than for Suna for instance. "Are you hungry? We make a great Gyūdon in Taki!" I smiled softly at her.
"Yeah, it would be great. With sake please." I was not one to drink alcohol often but...today I needed this.
"Okay!"
Two more days went by, where the most I saw from outside was from our balcony. Taki was definitely the most beautiful village I had ever seen. It was not big and was built around an immense tree, the scenery being just green and full of life and nature. It was a lot more peaceful and quiet than Konoha for instance, which was full of life and animation, even at night.
Sasuke ended up able to stay awake after three days spent sleeping and eating half-asleep. The good thing was, now he was in great shape.
"Shibuki-sama," I greeted him as Sasuke and I entered his office, Fū next to us against the wall.
"Uzumaki-san, Sasuke-san, please sit." We did and right away, I took note of the exhaustion and nervousness on his face. "I have read the letter you gave me and had a long talk with my advisers concerning its contents. I have to admit some of them are skeptical as we are not a part of any of the Five Great Nations. They think this may be a hidden way to pressure and control us."
"What do you think then?" I asked him flatly.
"I disagree." I looked at him in surprise. "A couple of years ago, Konoha and Sasuke-san's team in particular helped me and Taki through a difficult time. I doubt it would have changed so much in such a short amount of time. The attack you suffered from a few days ago and Kegon's death cannot make me agree more with you."
"Do you accept I take a loot at Fū's seal?" He nodded and got up.
"Please do, you are free to walk around the village as you please. I need to contact the Hokage, I will make you come back."
Once we were outside, Fū insisted to make us visit the village.
"So, you went here before?" Sasuke shrugged.
"We were hired to escort Shibuki and a coup happened on the same day, just when Kakashi had left us on our own."
"I see." We stopped near a beautiful lake illuminated by the sunlight piercing the foliage of the trees. It was otherworldly. "Okay, Sasuke, I will be busy with Fū but it doesn't mean I won't take care of you. We're going to take it to two hundred percent now, you can follow?" He scoffed smugly.
"I was waiting for it." I smirked and made a shadow clone. As I wasn't wearing my heals, Sasuke and I were basically the same height, me still having a couple of centimeters on him.
It wouldn't be for long though.
"We...are going to use a different training method starting now. I'll use it myself on the road to improve my fuinjutsu faster"
"How so?"
"Damn," I sighed, "Naruto's gonna hate me for it."
"The Shadow Clone Jutsu then?" he concluded and I nodded. "How does it make progress faster?"
"You'll see once you can do the technique. Time to get to work people. Fū, lay down."
At least, in all of this, we had beautiful surroundings.
Hey! Thanks for reading and leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter! Thanks to nevvy for all of their reviews. Good to see you're still around ! x)
Bye!