Disclaimer: The characters are Masashi Kishimoto's property, I own the OCs.

Characters age:

Akane: 10 (43)

Itachi: 10 (26)

Shisui: 14

Naruto / Sasuke: 5

Kakashi: 19

"Morning." He looked behind him, Akane having just walked in. Itachi had woken up a dozen of minutes earlier, saw her bed empty and read her note. He had been contemplating going in town to find her until she opened the door.

"Where did you go?" She blinked in confusion at the harsh tone. He cursed himself in his mind. His emotions were still a mess.

"I…I didn't move in a day, I needed some fresh air and stretch out my legs," she explained quietly. "You were sleeping, I didn't want to wake you up for that." He took a deep breath, hating how Akane was trying to make herself smaller. "Sorry." His shoulders dropped.

"Don't be," he finally said in a quieter voice. "I'm…I'm overreacting, I know it." She pursed her lips. His eyes glanced at her ponytail. "How did you do your hair?"

"I made a clone, why?" He looked down.

"Nothing." He stood up and walked in front of her. "I can do it, if you're okay with it."

"It's fine, don't wor…"

"I want to." She tilted her head on the side, and he looked down, a conflicted look in his eyes. "I'm…I'm sorry Akane, for the way I acted. I let my emotions get the best of me in the worst possible time."

"Oh huh…it's fine, I messed up, it was my fault." She handed him a pastry box. "I've waited for the bakery to open, they're fresh out of the oven. They're famed in the whole country." He opened the box. "They're rice cakes, you've got pumpkin, red beans and cinnamon, even if I am not a big fan of the last one."

"Thank you but why?" She shrugged.

"Might let your sweet tooth enjoy what Kiri has to offer, right?" She put her belongings on her bed. "Let's go get breakfast." He put the treats on his bed.

"Akane, I…"

"It's in the past Itachi, let it go," she cut him off sharply. "Things were said, others were not said, shit happened. It's okay, we can move on from it and leave it in the past. Now I need to eat, I'm starving."

"But I…" She stopped in front of the door and sighed, before glancing at him above her shoulder.

"I'm okay Itachi. I'm good with you, I just hope you can be good as well." He pursed his lips.

He wanted to apologize. He knew he needed to do it, but Akane didn't seem to want to talk or hear about any of it anymore. In all honesty, a part of him was relieved by it. Apparently, his pride liked to show up in the worst moments.

"I'm good," he replied. She grinned at him.

"Then breakfast!" He followed her.

Even if he carried her tray, taking her by surprise, he couldn't stop the voice in his mind calling him a coward. He didn't know why the apology about what he had said didn't want to come out. Akane had said she was good, but she still deserved to hear him apologizing for his hurtful words.

It was another thing he should have told her that he didn't find the courage to do so. When they went back to their room, Akane patting her full stomach, he gently took her hand in his when he closed the door behind them.

"Itachi? What's going on?"

"I just…" He took a deep breath and looked in her eyes. "I don't want to lose you." She widened her eyes and blushed furiously.

"Why would you say something like that out of the blue?" she replied, her face as red as a tomato. He smiled faintly.

"I just…I wanted you to know it." She looked down and smiled sheepishly.

"I…I…oh God, I don't even know what to say!" She removed her wrist from his hand to cup her burning cheek. "You enjoy making me like this, don't you?" He chuckled, nodding. "Jerk." He kept chuckling and she joined him.

He knew he still needed to apologize. It could wait for the end of the Exams though. Akane seemed fine, and she was smart, she saw through him. He was sure she knew he was trying to apologize in his own way for everything when he said he didn't want to lose her.

"I love you." He felt lighter and he poked her on the forehead with a smile.

"You guys are now officially entering the last training/rest phase before the last Exam. The twelfth genin arrived an hour ago," Shikaku-san told us three days after we had arrived. "The tournament will start on January 1st at ten in the morning. The fights will be decided fifteen minutes before that, so be there at nine thirty just to be sure." We nodded. "The Hokage will be there the day before to talk to every genin from Konoha who reached this stage of the Exams."

"How many are we?"

"There are six from Kiri, then three from Kumo. With you two, it makes eleven. The last one is a kid from Iwa who is the only one still able to fight in two weeks."

"So we're the only ones from Konoha," I summed up.

"And the only ones who participated as a duo, and who faced a Swordsman of the Mist. You've made a lot of noise already. People will expect a lot from you."

"They want a show, we'll give them a show."

"I trust you both to train properly for the tournament. If you need me, you know where to find me." Shikaku left our room. I went to the desk and got my stuff out.

"Do you want to train together?" I glanced at Itachi above my shoulder.

"We might fight each other." He pursed his lips and looked down, curling his toes on the carpeting. "I mean, I want to keep working on what Minato-san gave me before we left, and it's a lot of things I have never dived into before so…" He looked up, interested.

"Maybe I can help you then?" I puffed my cheeks.

"To be honest, I want it to be a surprise." He raised a brow. "Like, one day I'll show you a super duper jutsu and you'll be in awe like 'Wow Akane I never thought you could pull that off, you're so cool and awesome and better than I am!'. You know?" He gazed at me with a deadpan.

"You're going a little bit too far in my reaction, but I get it."

"You'll be fine to reach the training ground, right?" He sighed.

"Yes, it's just…I wanted us to spend some time together."

"We've been doing that since we got here." He shook his head.

"Without the shinobi aspect of things."

"Oh." I looked at the desk. "I guess I can work on this only in the morning or afternoon and the rest of the day will be free." His eyes brightened.

"Really?" I nodded, unsure how to react to his obvious enthusiasm. "Good."

"Careful Itachi, or I might think you're crushing on me," I said idly, sitting in the chair. My back was to him, and I didn't hear him coming.

I froze, a shiver running up my spine when his tongue teased me in the ear. The issue was, I wasn't as insensitive to it as I was just a few months ago.

Itachi then kissed my cheek before seeing I was unresponsive.

"Akane? Are you okay?"

"Yeah…just…" I looked at him, annoyed. "Puberty is starting, I'm feeling…things." He blinked.

"Oh." He looked at my chest. "I thought I was imagining things, but they are…"

"Oh my God don't comment on that!" I crossed my arms over my growing chest. Itachi was confused.

"But I've seen them before." I blushed madly.

"It's not the same! Puberty is embarrassing Itachi, I doubt you'd enjoy me commenting on what's growing on your body!" He blushed a little.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to embarrass you like that." I gulped and nodded, relaxing a bit. "But you've seen me naked before, I wouldn't mind." I facepalmed.

"Leave the room before I kick you out because of indecency." He blinked, but now I knew he was playing dumb.

"If anyone knows how you turn out after puberty, it's me." I ran to my bed and threw my pillow at him. It landed in the door he shut behind him. "I'll see you after lunch."

"Meanie!" I yelled from the inside of the room.

If he was teasing me again, then it meant he felt better. What happened during the past exams really did something to him because he had been weird since I had woken up, trying to help me for the tiniest thing and then saying he didn't want to lose me.

I put a hand on my heart when I thought back on it. He had made my heart miss so many beats with just a few words.

I shook my head and opened the scroll for the Hiraishin. In one was how it worked, then in others there were information about space-time jutsus in general and anything Minato-san deemed could help me make my own Hiraishin formula.

It was a lot of work. I had never dived in space-time ninjutsu or fuinjutsu before beyond storage seals. There was a lot of theory, then elaborate the formula and test it out.

It was a challenge, but I loved having my brain challenged by complicated things.

Like I had said, I'd spend a few hours with Itachi. He wouldn't tell me what he was working on, saying he wanted to surprise me as well. It was still weird to walk around Kiri with Itachi. I knew shinobi would glance at me when I'd walk by, but I was pretending it was because of the Chuunin Exams and nothing else.

"What is this?" I stopped, like Itachi at the entrance of the clans' district. It was nothing more than a ghost town in the village.

"The clans' district," I replied in a whisper. "All the clans used to live together so when they were wiped out or fled…"

"Did you use to live here?" he asked me, his eyes staring at the abandoned houses.

"I did, as a baby. A few people still live here though." He glanced at me, and I shrugged. "People with kekkei genkai were wiped out and hunted down. Not every clan had one. Some left to live in the village to get rid of the stigma of the Purges, others chose to stay."

"What are you two doing here?" Hum? This voice…

Itachi and I turned around. A young man was there, no, teenager still. He had shoulder-length brown hair and magenta eyes. You couldn't differentiate the pupils from the rest.

"Oh, you're the Konoha kids who qualified for the Third Exam. Did you get lost?" I nodded. Itachi noticed I was barely reacting and pinched the small of my back. "Well, you shouldn't hang around here."

"Sorry, we're leaving," Itachi said. The teenager looked down at me, a soft glint in his eyes and I gulped.

"I know we don't have a good reputation, but we don't bite. At least not without reason." He pointed at the dirt road going back to the heart of the village. There used to be cobblestone covering it, some of them were still there, on the side, broken. "Come on, go back there. There's nothing left here for anyone." His eyes were heavy on me when he said that. Itachi took my hand and nodded at him before leaving.

"Did you know him?" he asked me once we were far enough. I nodded. "He's…familiar."

"He's the Fourth's only child," I said, feeling like I could finally breathe. Kagura looked like his grandfather, but also so much like his father… "Wait, familiar?"

"I fought the Fourth Mizukage when I was fourteen, he killed Juzo," he informed me quietly. I muffled a chuckle, Itachi shooting me a strange look.

"Sorry, it's just ironic to know he was desperate to leave and was killed by him nonetheless." He didn't think it was funny. "I couldn't stand the guy, sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he said stiffly.

We spent Christmas together in our hotel room. He got me a brand new fuinjutsu kit, the notebook for my ideas being high quality and had a cute cover. He seemed unsure of himself when I opened it, admitting he wanted to get me something more personal but didn't know what. I kissed him on the cheek, and he opened his present, blinking at the title of the book.

"I noticed you had a few in your room and concluded you liked this author."

"I do, a lot, but not all of his works are in the Land of Fire." He turned the book around, reading the summary briefly. "Thank you Akane." I grinned.

"Thank you for the supplies!" We looked at each other in the eyes. I blushed after a few seconds and was happy when food arrived. "Ah, dinner!"

When it was eaten, we went to the window to watch the snow falling. I squinted at the sky above the mountains.

"Are those…northern lights?" I asked to myself quietly.

"No idea."

"Let's go to the roof." I ran there once I had my shoes and coat on, Itachi running after me telling me to slow down. I had been free of my sling for a few hours, I could move around normally now without having a weight in front of me all the time.

Once on the roof, I gazed in awe at the northern lights. We could see them better here, the green in the night sky, as the snow was falling softly upon us, was beautiful. It would shift to light blue.

"It is beautiful." I nodded, taking Itachi's hand without thinking. He squeezed it back. I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes.

Itachi would be a handsome man. He was an adorable kid, and it was weird to see the baby fat melting away, his facial features getting more and more defined to become those I had fallen in love with. He noticed me staring and glanced back at me curiously.

"Do I have something on my face?" I shook my head and moved to be in front of him.

"Itachi, can…I ask for something?"

"What is it?" I pursed my lips, curling my toes in my shoes. My eyes wouldn't meet his. "I won't make fun of you, promise, so don't be shy."

"Could I…kiss you? On the lips?" He blinked.

"Is that it?" I nodded. "I kissed you already, there was no need to be scared."

"I know, but it was still embarrassing to as…" His lips on mine cut me off. It was a peck, his cold hands on my burning cheeks but it made my heart go wild. The red dusting his cheeks made it go faster.

"See?" I cupped his cheeks and pecked him back on the lips. We kissed each other like this for a few minutes before hugging each other tightly. I leaned my cheek on his shoulder, blowing against the small patch of skin I could see between his scarf and jawline. "You don't have to ask me if you want to kiss me you know, if it's just you and me…" I sighed a little.

"I'll remember it." He hugged me tighter, keeping me squished against him.

I didn't want this moment to end.

Two days later, I left our room when the letters started to blend with one another on my paper. I walked around town and stopped on a bridge crossing the river in Kiri, river that ended its course in the sea. I leaned on the railing and sighed, rubbing my eyes with one hand.

"Having a hard time training?" I froze. That voice…I knew it. I knew it too much.

It had haunted me for far too long.

I gulped and slowly, fought the terror cursing through my body to look at the person next to me. There was no hat, no club on his back in sight. He was leaning on the railing nonchalantly like I was. He looked like a kid my age, yet I couldn't utter a single word.

He turned his magenta eyes to me, and I stepped back, bowing at him to show I knew who he was.

"Mizukage-sama, I didn't think I would mee…"

"Cut the crap Uzumaki." I straightened up, my eyes wide with shock. "You've been wandering the village since you arrived, it is only natural I greet a lost citizen who finally comes home." I was almost too scared to breathe. "It is why you have been discovering Kiri, isn't it? It is curiosity of where you belong and where you should have been." I…if I were to say something, who knew how it would turn out. "It must be exhausting to be a fraud all the time in Konoha."

"I'm not a fraud," I retorted bitterly. "I live with my family, I am not…"

"You don't sound convinced of your own words."

"I…I…" I stuttered, clenching my hands in tight fists. They were shaking, like my legs.

"You're not like them, I see it your eyes. You'll never be able to feel fulfilled as a kunoichi in Konoha either."

"How so?" He raised a finger and showed our surroundings.

"What place seems the best to train an Ice Release and just live when you're heat-sensitive?" I bit the inside of my cheek. "Granted, I know you have seen the old clans' districts, I know you know what we did to your kind, both of them." I looked down. "But you wouldn't face the same fate." I smirked sarcastically. "The Uzumakis' gift for Fuinjutsu is rare, it wins over the Yuki lineage. It wouldn't give you a death sentence."

"You're too kind," I muttered under my breath. He narrowed his eyes a little, making me tense.

"You are your father's daughter." I gritted my teeth. "Whatever Ushio ran from is going to be your burden sooner or later." He started to walk away. He stopped a few meters away from me and glanced at me above his shoulder. "You'll come back here sooner or later because you know it is what is best for you."

"How can you be so sure of that?" He smirked.

"I know my weapons when I see them." He left.

I released a breath I wasn't aware I was holding. This…was my first meeting with Karatachi Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage and Obito's puppet in this era and it was…intense. The killing intent he was subtly letting out of him to intimidate me…

At least now, there was no doubt possible. Yagura knew I was well, alive and a kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf. He…he basically said I'd be 'welcomed' here if I wanted to. I wasn't sure of his definition of 'welcomed' though, he had used the term 'weapons' so maybe my life wouldn't be that different as it was when I was a kid. Maybe it would because I would have a kunoichi background in another village, who knew.

I went back to the hotel mechanically and once in the room, I slipped in Itachi's bed. I took his pillow and hugged it around me beneath the sheets, focusing on his scent on it and not the encounter that had just happened.

As I repeated the scene in my mind, again and again, unable to think of something else, I started to breathe faster, my heart following the rhythm. I grasped my sweater above my heart, scared of what was happening. My body started to shake and…

Was I having a panic attack?

Akane had not come where he was training, so he was on his way to their room. He felt something weird when he went through the doors of the hotel. Once in their room, it was immersed in darkness. He could see the bulge in his bed, covered by the sheets.

"You shouldn't take a nap at lunchtime." He turned on the lights and removed the bed sheets. He frowned when he saw Akane.

She was shaking, curled up in a ball, her hands clenched on his pillow as tears were streaming down her face. She was breathing hard and slowly; she turned her eyes to him.

She was utterly terrified.

He had to be careful.

He crouched next to the bed so he would be at eye-level with her. He showed her his hand and carefully put it in her hair to run his fingers through it.

"It's okay, I'm here now," he told her calmly. She gulped. "You're safe right now, I'm here. I'm with you." He poked her pinky with his finger. After a few seconds, she allowed his hand to get between hers and the pillow.

Her hand was cold against his warm one.

"Do you need anything?" She shook her head curtly. "Okay." He glanced at his pillow. "Would you like it if I replaced my pillow?" Again, a few seconds went by before he got a small nod. "Okay, I am going to remove it."

He did his best to avoid being too rough and gently pried her arms away from it, put it beneath her head and slipped in bed with her, carefully putting her arm on him. Her hand grasped his shirt on his shoulder.

"I am going to put my arms around you, okay?" Another nod and he was hugging her. "Akane, look at me in the eyes and breathe with me." She did just that.

For long, long minutes, he could only hear Akane's breathing in the room. It slowly calmed down, Itachi relieved to see the fright in her eyes leaving, her body relaxing. He gently poked her on the forehead when the tears stopped falling.

"See? It was a bad moment, that's all. It's not permanent." She sniffed. Once he had given her a paper tissue, she blew her nose in it.

"When did you learn how to deal with a panic attack?"

"It has happened with people on missions sometimes when they were too close to action." She sniffed and threw the tissue on the nightstand. She missed and groaned when it landed on the floor. "Do you want to talk about it?" She looked at the ceiling for a few seconds.

"Yagura." He leaned on his elbow to look at her better. "The words were blurring together so I took a walk. I stopped on a bridge and he…appeared next to me and said…things…"

"What things?"

"That I'd find my way back here one day among other things." She sighed. "There is no doubt he knows who I am and where to find me. I knew it but…well, I guess as long as I wasn't seeing him then I could stay a little bit in denial over the fact that…"

"The fact?"

"He's not dead." She bit her lip. "With him dead, unable to hurt me again the wounds closed but now it's…I'm afraid some may have started to reopen."

"I see." She buried her face in his shirt.

"I'll be fine, it just…the shock got the best of me." He pursed his lip, only half-convinced.

She was shocked, that was for sure. However, what he had told her reached her more than she seemed to admit to herself, or at least to him.

He didn't like this at all.

As Shikaku had told them, Minato arrived on December 31st, just before the last Exam started. His father was there and nodded at them both when he saw them qualified, and Kakashi. From the nineteen genin from Konoha, only them had qualified. Four had been killed by other genin and one had died from a poisonous plant found in the swamps. The other twelve made it back to Kiri, often wounded or malnourished, thirsty. They all stayed in the hospital upon return.

Kiri and the Land of Water were secretive, and it included their fauna and flora, their climate and so on. They were not prepared for this and failed to adjust efficiently. Although, Akane had told him that the many islands that made the Land of Water more often than not had their own climate and weather. The island they had been on was called Juhyou Island and from her own words, it was covered in snow almost all year long. Then, she told him it was where the Yuki clan was from, which was most likely the reason they had dropped them there.

"Well, I'm going to collect the bodies tomorrow before the beginning of the tournament," Minato told them. "Get some rest." Akane looked at his father.

"If Itachi and I fight each other, who are you going to support?" Fugaku raised a brow. "There's a big conflict of interest." Itachi looked at his father expectantly, which made him frown. "No answer?"

"It will be the one who gives the best performance." Akane scoffed while he shook his head.

"So after the fight, not during, I see." She sighed dramatically. "I get the message, sensei."

"You're too dramatic for your own good." Kakashi nodded next to Minato. Akane glared at him.

"I am wounded." It was Itachi's turn to scoff. Akane narrowed her eyes at him, and he looked away. "Traitor."

"I can't support your lie." She rolled her eyes.

"Who's dramatic exactly?"

Itachi liked to think he was mature. Ever since he was a child, he had thought like an adult. He was fully aware of it, the higher-ups pushing heavy missions on him was proof he was not the only one seeing that. He did not necessarily openly show it to everyone, he liked to keep to himself.

But there were a small selection of people who could bring out a more childish, teasing side of him. Typically, it would be Shisui when Itachi would make fun of the silly ideas he had. It also was Akane because he found her reactions to his teasing funny, and adorable. He felt very good about himself to know he could get reactions like these from her.

He pushed her on the floor in response, momentarily forgetting they were not on their own. His father raised a brow at him. He just had the time to open his mouth, trying to find an explanation that Akane kicked the leg of his chair, making him fall as well. He glanced at the girl, who pulled her lash line down, sticking her tongue at him.

Much like he would be more childish by teasing them, Shisui and Akane could also make him react childishly to provocations. He was ready to pounce on her, get her in a chokehold and keep her like this until she admitted defeat when his father and the Hokage both cleared their throat. From Akane's position, who was ready to move at any second now, she knew what he was thinking and would have put on a fight.

"Keep that for tomorrow," Shikaku told them, smirking in amusement.

"You're going down." Akane raised a surprised brow at him. "What, if we do fight each other, I am not going to be nice to you."

"Huh, bitc…"

"Akane," Minato cut her off, a calm yet threatening smile on his face. She bit her tongue. He smirked a little, which made her glare at him.

It really was all too fun to annoy her and tease her.

It was true though. If they were to fight, he would take her seriously. He wanted to fight her seriously and see for himself how skilled she was.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have liked it, please do let me know in reviews! Thanks to Guestfor the comment!

Bye!