Akane wondered how long she'd been walking. Somehow, Haku had blasted her and Genji much further away from the coast that Akane had hoped. And her teammate had left her behind. Uchiha Akane was lost. She closed her eyes and slowly tried to sense further past the tree line than she could see. She couldn't feel any humans. Akane sighed and slumped against a tree. She had almost no chakra left.

Wasn't staying put the best thing when you were lost?

Akane stayed standing just in case Haku or Zabuza came back to finish her off. She shivered, and checked her surroundings once more before slowly pressing herself against a thin tree. They were nothing like the gigantic monsters that surrounded her home. They made her feel exposed, there was almost no point in hiding behind it at all. It wouldn't even hold her weight in its branches.

And it was dark. Akane hated the dark and the moon looming over her head.

"Peakaboo!"

—-

Six Years Previously

"She hasn't said a word since she woke up," the nurse said, running her checks over Akane who flicked her eyes up to her. The black haired girl simply blinked a few times and kept her eyes straight ahead. "Uchiha-san…" The nurse said with a gentle voice, running her fingers along her cheek, brushing her hair behind her ears. "Uchiha-san, Sasuke woke up a few days ago, he really wants to see you…"

Let him want, the girl thought bitterly and rolled her eyes. But it wasn't fair, he really was only like six years old, and his entire family was murdered. So was hers, she guessed, rubbing her thumb along the raised line along her neck. Akane's eyes snapped to the nurse, who stiffened at her sudden movement. "I don't remember who that is," Akane said, her voice was hoarse, grating on her throat like sand paper. "All I remember…is that man."

"Oh," the nurse said with a sad voice. She ran her fingers through Akane's hair and stood up. "Sasuke is your third cousin from your father's side…do you remember your father?" She asked. Akane shook her head. "Well…well sometimes memories come back. Would you like us to ask Sasuke to wait a few more days?"

"No…no it's fine, I'll meet him." Akane threw the blankets off her legs and stood up, grabbing the railing of the bed to keep from falling. "Take me to his room," she ordered with a gasp, pointing to the door. The nurses tried to argue with her, so she just threw the door open, and pushed her way into the hall and leaned against the wall, managing to keep herself upright somehow. Akane then realized the long cut on the back of her calf, the apparent cause of her poor motor control. A nurse came over and slung her arm over his shoulder. "Take me to Sasuke," she ordered him, her heart beating against her ribs.

He dragged her the rest of the way.

Akane could hear Sasuke behind the door, raging against some injustice. Akane grabbed the edge of the door and threw it open. "WHAT'S GOING ON?" Akane screamed, causing the room to still. Sasuke was being held down on his bed by three masked men who disappeared the moment Akane screamed at them. Sasuke threw himself on the ground, tears springing to his eyes, and he crawled to her, wrapping his arms around her legs screaming her name into the cloth of her hospital gown.

Akane had spent a lifetime babysitting her cousins and was used to tears and snot. Akane reached down and picked Sasuke up and hefted him up in her arms with a huff. He was a well muscled child, she realized. He weighed a lot more than he looked like he might. She shuffled over to the bed and sat down, patting him on the back, and trying to shush him. Akane felt tears welling up in her eyes, but fought them back. Akane swore she'd protect him.

"So…like, who are you?" Akane asked him when his tears subsided.

Sasuke surprised her with a small chuckle. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

And they laughed together.

Genji woke to the sound of his own groaning, rolling out of a storage scroll. "You're a dick," he grunted, pulling the ruined blood pack off his chest, throwing it into the water. He touched his skin, where Zabuza had managed to snag off three chunks off him, blood running sluggishly down his throat, ruining his shirt. "That wasn't part of the plan."

"Yeah well, the burns weren't either." Zabuza growled. He looked at Haku who was grabbing Tazuna's head, removing their blood-covered scarf. They wrapped the head in the scarf and put it in their bag that they had over their shoulder. "Fuck you," he stood at his full hight and glared dangerously at Tenzo who looked at him blankly.

"Well, you're alive, aren't you?" Tenzo pointed out

"LOOK AT MY FACE!" Zabuza yelled, then winced when Haku placed a hand on his cheek, their palm glowing green.

"Shit, Akane is alone with that creep," Genji gasped, looking at Tenzo for direction. "He said-"

"I heard," Tenzo said, giving his subordinate a calm hand gesture to shut up. "Zabuza of the Hidden Mist, this concludes our dealings. May we never meet again. I hate to cut this meeting short but our comrade may need some help."

"Yeah, she doesn't hit very hard," Zabuza smirked at them.

"But, as I'm sure your dead companion can attest, she is effective." Tenzo signaled for Genji to follow and the two of them took off running towards Akane before Zabuza could change his mind. The nukenin didn't follow and Tenzo let himself relax a fraction to simply conserve energy.

What if he was too late? What if Kabuto had already carried Akane off to Orochimaru to do kami only knew? Tenzo was just grateful that Akane hadn't awakened her Sharingan yet. Maybe Akane would be less attractive of an experiment to his old tormentor if she was like many Uchiha women and would be unable to either awaken or pass on the Sharingan. For once, Tenzo was grateful that his student was a subpar Shinobi. Because maybe, just maybe, Orochimaru would be merciful and simply kill her.

Akane remained calm when she spun around and found a wounded Kabuto leaning against one of the thin trees of the woods. He was breathing heavily, his left eye swollen terribly, a break on his left arm, blood dripping out of his nose. Kabuto looked like shit. Akane reached out to him and turned his shoulder so she could better assess the damage. It would be better if her team was able to at least get back to the village alive, right? "Are you-"

"No," Kabuto answered shortly and slammed his arm into a tree, grunting when it slid back into place with a pop. "Akane…the others-"

"No," Akane cut him off.

"I'm sorry, they're-"

"NO!" She screamed at him, shoving him to the ground, and regretting it instantly when he cried in pain. Akane dropped to his side, tears streaming down her face, a terrible burning of her eyes. She touched him and he glared at her, sitting up and crossing his legs. Akane couldn't believe that it had all gone so wrong. Akane thought she might have been able to even save their enemy. Now her teacher and teammate were dead…all that was left of her team were her…and Kabuto.

"Well would you look at that," Kabuto said, almost like he sensed Akane thinking about him. He touched her cheek, rubbing under her eye. Kabuto turned his thumb to her and Akane saw blood, touching under her left eye, indeed a small trail of bloody tears ran down her face. "Akane is all grown up," Kabuto continued, his voice a soft, menacing whisper.

"What?" Akane asked. Kabuto reached into the weapon's pouch at his hip and pulled out a small mirror, showing Akane her own face. Akane also looked like shit. With black bruises on her cheek, a roughed up jaw. Her hair was missing a chunk on the right side, right on the top. The trail of blood that ran lazily down her face. And a single red eye with two black knicks outside the pupil, and three thin black rings. Akane's breath came out in choppy gasps and she touched her face, leaning closer into the mirror. Akane knew what it was but she hadn't seen anything like it exactly. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew Sasuke would get it, but she never thought…

"Akane…that's the Sharingan, isn't it?" Kabuto said, pulling her gently from her thoughts. Akane looked down at him and automatically tried to refuse but Kabuto continued. "But this isn't the typical first awakening. I don't think I've seen one like this before. Do you know what this stage is called? No…I suppose not, you don't remember anything useful from your clan."

"Jerk," Akane shoved him again and he laughed when the dust scattered around him. Akane closed her eye and realized that she could see Chakra through her left eye. And there was a huge overbearing signature turned towards them. Akane swallowed and decided it wasn't worth wasting her already meager remaining Chakra to keep an eye on him. She had a feeling she knew who it was. "I can't turn it off," Akane said, still trying to cut the Chakra from her eye.

"Redirect your Chakra through your hands," Kabuto suggested.

And it worked. She was suddenly blind. Not literally, but Akane had gone from 1080HD10000000FPs to old time black and white TV. It was jarring and Akane grabbed the branch of a tree to keep herself from falling over again. "I think Tenzo-sensei is still alive," Akane said, looking over her shoulder. "I thought I could see his Chakra."

Kabuto looked down, sadness over taking his face. "Akane…I saw…"

"No, I saw him, I saw it! Kabuto! He's still alive we have to-"

"He ordered me to leave him," Kabuto stopped him. "His last command as Team of Twenty was that I needed to make sure the two of us got to the outpost and that we get home. Don't you want to see Sasuke? Do you really want to leave him all alone in the world?"

"We can't just abandon him. He's still alive."

"And so is Zabuza and his co-conspirator. They're still fighting on the bridge and if Zabuza overtakes him, then we're next."

"No! I can't! I have Sharingan now, right? According to Sasuke that makes me some kind of god at this point! We just got a huge power up! We can do it! We can work together and take Zabuza! He's just one guy!" Akane balled her hands into fists and stomped her foot into the ground. "You're always making fun of me! Always telling me what a shity ninja I am! But who is laying on the ground like a little bitch, trying to run away from a fight?! What shinobi worth their salt runs away at the idea of fighting someone stronger than them?! Shouldn't that excite you?! I'm the worst of the generation, according to you, but who's laying in the dust?!" Akane was breathing deeply when she'd finished monologuing and Kabuto was grinning ear to ear at her. Akane thought for a moment that she'd gotten through to him.

"So let's test that then," a voice whispered behind her ear. Akane didn't turn around, instead jumping into the trees, and having to adjust when the branch snapped under her weight. Five kunai were in her face before she touched the ground and she managed to dodge four, crying out in pain when one hit her shoulder. Akane grit her teeth and slid low on the ground, skidding through the dirt. She realized that she didn't have much Chakra left, but with forming the hand seals put Orochimaru on edge. She pushed off the ground and aimed a kick at his face. He grabbed her ankle and Akane twisted in his grip, throwing herself into an awkward handstand and wrapping her arms around his leg, sinking her teeth into the hard flesh of his muscled thigh. Orochimaru yanked her off him and spun her around and threw her into a rock, creating an oddly Akane shaped hole in the stone.

Akane knew that she wouldn't be able to beat this man in a one on one fight even if she had the same amount of Chakra as a jinchuriki. So she played to the one advantage that she had. And with the Sharingan activated Akane could see everything. Like her eye knew exactly where Orochimaru would move, how he'd strike. When Orochimaru rushed her Akane had already moved and it seemed she really did surprise him, from the way he looked at the crumbling rock he'd punched to dust. Akane lowered herself into a fighting stance, pulling out her last Kunai.

With less than a tenth of her Chakra, she had maybe five minutes of her Sharingan left before her body started to shut down. She was out of weapons. There were no allies on the field, but they didn't know she knew that. The only advantage she had was some knowledge of the future that she'd bent over the barrel and erased. "Kabuto…" Akane called to him, not taking her eyes off Orochimaru. Kabuto called back to her, weakly struggling to his feet. "Who's this guy?"

"How should I know?" Kabuto snarked, but stood by her right side.

"I thought you knew everything," Akane snarked, wrapping a line of ninja wire around the handle of her kunai, letting it hang by her side. "You got any weapons?"

"Just this," Kabuto said, pulling out his silver scalpel that had started to get a bit duller with bits of blood still on the handle. Of course he'd had time to clean his weapons. Because he was just oh so very innocent.

"Good enough! Remember! The medic dies last!" Akane yelled and charged Orochimaru who seemed to almost grow bored with the fight, a roll of his yellow eyes. Akane's eyes showed her his hands would fly through the seals, some kind of fire jutsu. She rolled to the right and crouched at his side, his jutsu blowing and missing her by ten feet. His eyes widened and he looked down at her. She slammed her kunai into his side, grinning when blood spouted onto her face. She ripped her weapon out of his side and wrapped the wire around his wrist tightening it until the hand came off his body completely, landing in an ugly bloody heap on the ground.

Orochimaru kneed her in the chest and she coughed up blood when one of her ribs punctured a lung. He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the ground, three times, until one of her teeth fell out of her mouth and down her throat. She gagged and swung her legs up, around his neck, and disrupted their balance. He hit the ground and Akane used his back like a spring board, landing on her feet, skidding in the dirt, almost unable to keep her balance.

Akane screamed when something sharp was driven into her thigh. She looked to her right, where she was almost blind because of the Sharingan blazing in her left eye. She hadn't noticed Kabuto creeping up on her. "W-what the fuck…?"

"Ah…well…" Kabuto grinned at her bashfully. "I'm betraying you." He ripped the scalpel out of her flesh and she fell, grabbing the wound to stem the blood. She realized that the Sharingan was starting to narrow her vision and she channeled her chakra away from her eyes. She was grateful for the lower quality.

"But is it betrayal, if he was never on your side?" Orochimaru put his hands on Akane's shoulders. He'd grown back the one Akane had cut off. He opened his mouth and his neck shot out the three feet to the place where her neck met her shoulder. Akane screamed, eyes rolling back into her head, she slumped into the ground.

"Heal her," Orochimaru ordered. Kabuto obeyed without question, though he obviously seemed put upon while doing it. "Akane shows potential, though she's nothing compared to either of her cousins. Still…a Sharingan not yet recorded…if she proves unworthy to be my vessel, I'll simply take the boy. But for now…I'd like to see how strong I can make this one."

Kabuto scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You've seen the extent of her abilities, Lord Orochimaru."

"I don't think that's accurate, Kabuto, but only time will tell. Come along, before her friends are drawn in by the commotion."