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

Characters age:

Akane: 12 (45)

Itachi: 12 (29)

Shisui: 15

Naruto / Sasuke: 6

Kakashi: 20

"We wouldn't sabotage ourselves it is crazy!" one of his kinsmen yelled, standing up. Itachi was in the Naka shrine, in the basement in a clan meeting. Shisui and Izumi were next to him.

It was not planned. An emergency meeting was called half an hour before his date with Akane. It had been a good hour since it had begun, and they were going nowhere. People were fighting among each other. The younger generation was accusing the older one of sabotage because they were fine bitching in their isolationism. It was thrown back that the village had isolated them, not the other way around.

"This is going nowhere but to self-destruction," Shisui said through gritted teeth.

"The way the sabotage was done…it was basic shinobi training, it could be anyone," Izumi added.

"You're blinded by the Yellow Flash's reputation!" an old man yelled. A younger one, around Minato's age, stood up.

"So what!? He is the Hokage and seems more interested in us than the Third!"

"He's a brat!"

"Well maybe we need a brat to break outdated point of views!" The Sharingan was out.

"Enough!" His father cut them off firmly. "The Hokage wants us to feel more welcomed in the village, it is a fact. However, fighting among us could make him reconsider." How long was it going to take?

"Once the meeting over, I need to speak to you," Shisui whispered to him. He nodded.

One more hour. This meeting had lasted for two hours and a half. He was surprised to see it was raining when they were outside and Shisui dragged him to the woods.

"I have a confession to make," he stated seriously. "Minato-sama asked me to report to him how it was going in the clan." Itachi blinked.

"I see."

"You're…not surprised?" He shrugged. "Oh, well…it makes this easier then. I told him you could help." Itachi raised a brow. "I mean, you don't want the tensions to escalate too much, and you have a particular position. I know it's a lot Itachi an…"

"It's fine Shisui, I have been getting ready for this kind of things already." Shisui looked confused.

"Sometimes it's as if you know things I do not." Well, it was exactly that.

"Did you want to tell me something else?"

"No b…" He started leaving. "Hey!"

"I'm late!" So, so late. There was no way Akane had waited for him for two hours in the rain.

How was he supposed to explain himself for standing her up? She was excited about their date and now…She would be mad; she would be rightfully mad at him.

He reached the tea house, panting. There was a cup of tea on the bench outside, the rain making it spill everywhere. Itachi gritted his teeth and ran to the Namikaze household. He went to the backyard and jumped in the tree, facing Akane's window. The curtains were drawn but he recognized Akane's shadow behind it. He jumped on the windowsill and knocked on it.

"Akane?" The shadow stopped. "Akane, I know you're here. I'm…I'm sorry." He sounded pathetic. A few minutes went by, and she drew the curtain open and opened the window. He shyly entered the bedroom only to receive a towel on the head. She dried his hair like she could. As she did this, he spotted something copper in her trashcan.

Wasn't it her dress?

Whatever explanations he had died in his throat.

"Was it important?" He raised his head a little. "Whatever it was, was it important?"

"…my clan, it's…"

"It's okay." It was not. "I know it's complicated."

"I'm sorry," he said once more.

"It's okay," she repeated, almost mechanically. She removed the towel and he saw her distant eyes. There was nothing in them. The smile on her face was empty, her gaze was empty. "It was important, I get it."

"Akane…" he croaked. His voice was hoarse.

"I have some things to do, and your shoes are making the floor dirty, so I think you should leave." He blinked at her.

"Yes, of course, I'll…I'll leave," he replied quietly. He wanted to reach out to her, hug her, apologize profusely but…

He knew it wouldn't do anything. He knew his love. Something was broken in her eyes.

Her birthday present was heavy in his pocket. He couldn't possibly give her now, could he? She didn't want to see him for now. She…

"I'll make it up to you," he heard himself say to her, or was it to himself? He didn't know. He needed to tell her he wanted to…to what? Tell her he had messed up and felt bad?

She nodded curtly. The second he was in the tree; the window was shut, and the curtains drawn. He stared at her window for a few minutes, hoping she would re-open it and scream at him. He wanted her anger; he'd rather have her anger than her lack of reaction.

He barely replied to his mother when he got home and went straight to his room. Itachi took the present from his pocket and opened the box. It was a simple drop-shaped ruby pendant on a silver chain. It had taken time, but he had found the same one he had gotten her before. He had hoped to gift it to her and make her a silent promise, to make her understand he didn't want anyone else.

He sighed and put it back in the box. When he put it on his desk, his onyx eyes found the ice raven on his desk. It had also taken a lot of time, but he had managed to glue the pieces back together. Yet, he had a bitter taste in his mouth at the sight of the sculpture.

It didn't feel like he deserved it right now. He was heavy-hearted, he hated to think he had hurt her again, that he had messed up. He had told himself he would be worthy of her and her love now and yet…

He had to fix it. He had to fix it before it was too late. He kept telling himself his love was smart and knew him, that she had to know what he was doing but how long would it take for doubt to start appearing?

"I have an important mission for you, something only you can do." I raised a brow behind my mask. "I need you to spy on the Uchiha clan for me."

There it was.

"You have connections with the clan leader, anything they might be plotting against the village, you can discover it."

"Do you want me to spy on Uchiha Fugaku's family sir?" I asked him with no emotion.

"I have understood you were not that popular in the Uchiha Compound due to your origins." I looked down behind my mask. "It is stupid, of course, anyone willing to fight for the Hidden Leaf should be considered as one of Konoha's inhabitants." It was one thing I had realized after working for Danzou for the past…almost a year now. I had turned him into a real bastard in my mind.

However, he was more complex than this. Despite my origins, he never treated me any different. I was a weapon, of course, but a weapon like anyone else. Being born in Kiri didn't seem to faze him. He also seemed to acknowledge people like Shisui as shinobi of Leaf before a member of the Uchiha clan. That being said, Konoha's well-being and survival were more important and if it meant taking people's eyeballs to use them as his own, then so be it. I wondered if he ever felt guilty after everything he had done. After all, his definition of 'threat' was not the same as everyone else's, and he was on the 'kill the threat so it won't come back' side more than on the 'let's talk it out and find an agreement' side.

Danzou would have thrived in the Bloody Mist. His Root was a mini version of it, although less bloody. I was aware of the whole thing about raising kids together and then pitting them against each other, of course, but it was mild. It wasn't the whole village the target, just a selected few.

Danzou and his Root were Konoha's skeleton in the closet, while Kiri was just proudly showing them off. In that aspect, I preferred Kiri's blunt honesty than Konoha's hypocrisy. The Hokages knew about this and never tried to stop it, because they knew on some level, they were getting good results.

I pitied him a little. After the Uchiha clan massacre, he was isolated and all of that when the Third had never bothered to do anything about him taking orphans and kids from clans to turn them into emotionless weapons.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, deep down, was worse than Shimura Danzou I guess.

"His family, and Uchiha Shisui as well. He has gotten closer to the Hokage recently. You will report to me every Sunday at eleven at night." I nodded firmly. "The Uchiha clan may be a founding clan, but they have never tried to be integrated in the village, or even leave Madara's shadow. They have been getting increasingly dangerous since the Kyuubi Attack, if they were to rebel…We would need to take actions quickly." I nodded again and he turned toward me. So far, he had been talking but facing the wall at the same time.

"Understood."

"It will not be an issue, is it?"

"Absolutely not sir." He nodded, satisfied.

"You're dismissed then." I left.

To be fair, I had been debating breaking up with Itachi for good. It was September now, in the past couple of months he had been trying to make it up to me. I was trying to be polite, but it was hard to look at him in the eyes and see only guilt. I was doubting breaking up because, on one hand, it would be better for the both of us and he wouldn't need to keep trying to get my forgiveness.

He already had it. I was mad at myself for being foolish.

However, it might be a big change he didn't need right now. Obviously, now I couldn't break up.

I would be betraying him, and his family, and Shisui, but if it meant they stayed alive and Sasuke didn't grow up an orphan, then it was worth it.

I really wanted this to be over, but I had to hang in there.

I looked around when I realized I was in the cemetery. My feet had taken me there automatically. I stayed a little on Mom's and Onii-chan's grave, wondering what they could be thinking of my actions up there.

When I turned around to leave, I spotted a lonely grave under a tree. I walked to it and knelt in front of it. 'Hatake Sakumo', Kakashi's father was buried there. He had gone from famed shinobi on par with the sannins to a fallen-from-grace shinobi after saving his comrades instead of finishing the mission. He was then marginalized and ultimately committed suicide when Kakashi was five.

He was a good shinobi in my eyes. He was human and not a weapon, but sadly it costed him his life. It was tragic.

"Akane?" I glanced above my shoulder. Kakashi was standing there, his hands in his pockets and a surprised look on his face.

"Hey." I looked back at the grave. "Sorry, am I overstepping?"

"No, I am just surprised. Not many people visit his grave." His eye was distant for a second. "Do you do it often?"

"No, it was the first time. I'm in one of those moods where I'm thinking deep and end up sad and depressed."

"A penny for your thoughts then." I smiled a little.

"I'm hungry too." He rolled his eyes and gestured me to follow him. I was all too happy when he'd get his wallet out for me and my belly.

We ended up on a bench on the landing between the two staircases leading to the eastern gates of the village.

"You know I'm a secret philosopher," I started, eating my Takoyaki. He scoffed.

"I wouldn't call it that but go ahead."

"I was just thinking your dad was a hero." He tensed a little and I patted his shoulder in comfort. "I mean, he proved shinobis were, are, more than just weapons who respond to orders. We're humans and there is only so much we can do until our morals and feelings catch up to us. We use weapons already, it's dumb to turn us into one."

"I always thought it was a metaphor to say we should not show emotions and follow orders." I shrugged.

"What if you don't agree with the orders?" He leaned on his knees to have a good look at my face.

"Are you okay with the missions?" Roots, not the few chuunin ones I had.

"Yes, I am quite alright. It just made me think."

"I see. I wanted to see you actually." I raised a brow. "Did you get in a fight with Itachi?" I frowned.

"I don't see how it is any of your business."

"Well, as his squad Captain, it is." Huh? "It's been several missions now I've noticed he was distracted. He got wounded on the last one and is the hospital right now." I jumped to my feet.

"What!? You didn't think about starting with this!?"

"He is fine, calm down. But he was wounded because he was distracted, and if it jeopardizes missions, then I'd like to know why."

"Have you asked him?"

"Yes, he didn't say anything." I looked down. "I don't know what happened, I don't know if it can be fixed or not, but he needs to get a grip on himself. I'm not taking him home to the morgue." I shivered at the thought. He saw my concern because he got up. "Follow me." There were some Uchihas in the hospital, obviously guarding one of their own. They shot Kakashi dirty looks, because of his sharingan, and I received a few myself.

"You can't enter," one of them stated.

"Is there a professional with him right now?"

"No but…" Kakashi narrowed his eye at him.

"Then I can, I am his superior. If I want to have someone with me, then I can as well." He wanted to talk back, but another Uchiha shook his head. "Good! Akane, go ahead, you know what I want to tell him." He pushed me in the room after knocking and shut the door behind me.

"Wait Kakashi!" I heard Itachi straightening up in my back and took a deep breath. I turned around and froze momentarily when I saw him.

He had bandages on his head down to his chin, on his nose and forehead, and I could see it was going down his right arm. The other was in a splint.

"What the fuck happened to you?" I asked, astonished at his state. He chuckled weakly. When Kakashi had said he was in the hospital, I thought chakra exhaustion, a bad cut, not a mummy!

"I got distracted." I leaned on his bed to look at him at as many angles as possible.

"It's not distracted, your soul left your body for a few minutes." He didn't seem fazed by my word; his eyes wouldn't leave me. "Seriously, stop staring at me at the most random moments Itachi, you're in the hosp…"

"But you're here," he interrupted me softly. "I'm happy." It was not every day you heard him say he was 'happy'.

"Kakashi told me you were in the hospital and that you were distracted." He tensed a little. "It's not like you to be distracted during missions."

"We all have things that can break our focus," he told me, looking at his legs. I pulled on his cheek. "I'm wounded."

"Sorry, forgot. The feeling's there though. Your missions are too dangerous now for you to be distracted." He had a thoughtful look on his face.

"It's the most you've talked to me in a while," he noted quietly. I blinked.

"Don't tell me it's why you were distracted." His shoulders dropped a little, his head low. He looked depressed right now. I ran a hand in my hair with a sigh. "Seriously you…"

"You can't blame me, I'm tr…"

"I've forgiven you," I interrupted him curtly.

"Really?" he replied sarcastically.

"Yeah. It just…makes me want to take things slow." He raised his head, his eyes surprised, yet disappointed too.

"Oh." I shrugged and sat on the chair next to him. "If this is what you want then…" I nodded as he was talking. "Let's take things slow then."

"Good then!" I stood up.

"You're leaving already?"

"Huh? Well, you should rest, and you have members of your clan acting as guard dogs in front of your room. I'd rather not find Kakashi chewed out by them." There was a brief flash on annoyance in his eyes.

"I understand, thanks for coming." I nodded and waved at him as I left. "See you later then?"

"Sure!"

Once I was out of the hospital, Kakashi asked me how it had gone. I told him it was fine.

The moment I was alone, I leaned against a wall in a dark alley. My smile slipped off my face. I had not exactly lied; I had forgiven him. However, I didn't want to…be his girlfriend, I guess. I still loved him, to death, and God knew that he needed someone to look out for him and after him because he had a bad martyrdom-syndrome.

I just needed to establish boundaries. Once this thing with his clan was done, I'd come clean. I'd tell him about Root, the spying and breaking up. He'd be furious, maybe he'd hate me. I wouldn't blame him; the white lies I had been telling him for years had turned into worst.

Orochimaru had left the village. His team had been dispatched to go after him. They had to stop him before he crossed the border, even if it meant killing him. Once he had crossed it, he would officially be a nukenin and the village had to get ready for that.

As they neared the border, they entered a minefield. It was trapped with many Explosive Seals and the team was split up. When he was in the clear, Itachi could still hear explosions in the distance. Fine, he'd take another route.

At least he tried to because he found himself face to face with a barrier. Someone had trapped him in a barrier jutsu. With his sharingans, he scanned it, trying to find the weak point. He walked alongside it until someone threw kunai at his feet. He looked up to see the branches of a tree move.

He started following the person. They were most likely the one who had trapped him there, they wanted to keep him there. They were here to ensure Orochimaru would leave in one piece. It wouldn't do. He followed them to a cliff. They deflected his shurikenjutsu so far, a tanto visible under the black cloak. He couldn't even tell if they were a man or a woman, only that they were adult and apparently missing an arm.

Without missing a beat, they jumped from the cliff. When Itachi reached the edge, trying not to slip due to the December frost on the ground, he just saw water moving. With that temperature, they would freeze to death.

"Can you hear me?" He put his hand on his ear.

"Yes."

"Good, we couldn't reach you for the past twenty minutes." Had it been twenty minutes already? "Were you inside the barrier?"

"Yes, I followed the culprit, but they jumped in the river."

"I see. The barrier's down, Orochimaru slipped through our fingers. We're regrouping."

"Understood." He glanced once more at the water.

It was a strange encounter.

December went by quickly. On the New Year, he went to the festival in town. The biggest shrine of Konoha had everyone gathered for the New Year. He was supposed to meet Akane there. He had messed up their date in May, but he'd make it right this time. Sure, Naruto and Sasuke were with them, but he could manage.

He saw Akane's red beanie from a distance, like Sasuke as his brother ran to them. He hugged Akane around the waist, who returned it with a chuckled. She waved at him shyly.

It was his imagination. She had come to see him at the hospital and told him they were good. Sure, his intuition was telling him there was something wrong, that her smile and her gaze were not entirely right, not like before, but he didn't want to listen to it. She was there after all, wasn't she?

"Do you want something?" he asked her, Naruto and Sasuke talking in front of them.

"No, I think I've eaten too much to be honest," she replied quietly, the lights of the stands reflecting in her brown eyes.

"Nee-chan, I want a yakiimo!"

"A baked potato?" she repeated, glancing at the stand. "I'm not getting scolded because you can't sleep."

"Nee-chan!" She sighed and started to rummage through her pockets for her wallet.

"That's okay, I have it," he told her, a few bills in his hand already.

"Wait Ita…"

"It's nothing," he assured her, taking Naruto there. Sasuke followed them, sniffing curiously the sweet smell of baked potato. "Sasuke?"

"I don't think I can eat a full one." Akane was looking at the food with interest. She caught him looking at her and averted her eyes, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

"Want to share one with me?" she asked his brother, who nodded.

"Three please."

"Should we find a spot for the fireworks?" Sasuke asked. Naruto was busy blowing on his potato, like Akane.

"You're right," the only girl agreed. He was walking behind them, looking at them fondly. It almost felt as if they were parents with their children.

"Itachi-kun?" He stopped and looked to his right. Izumi was there. Further away he could see her mother, with Yasuo and his parents. "Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year," he replied with a small smile. He had come to rely on her a lot with his clan.

"You're not on your own, are you?"

"No, I'm with my brother, Akane and Naruto." She pursed her lips for a brief moment, almost as if she had tasted a very sour lemon. It disappeared quickly.

"Are you enjoying the festival?"

"Yes." After five minutes spent talking, Sasuke yanked on his coat. "Sasuke?"

"Nee-san said we were going to find a spot, join us when you're done here." Sasuke looked at Izumi up and down with an obvious scowl and left, Izumi's hand frozen in the air because she had started to wave at him. She sighed deeply.

"Your brother has never liked me."

"He is peculiar with people."

"How so?"

"It works or it doesn't, there is rarely an in-between." He glanced at the group leaving. "I should go."

"Oh wait, I wanted to…" Ten more minutes went by until he managed to leave.

The fireworks started as he was running. It was reaching the end when he found them.

"You've almost missed everything!" Naruto greeted him.

"Sorry." Naruto kept talking to him. Akane had her head leaned toward his brother's mouth, who was whispering things in her ear. She chuckled and ruffled his hair.

It was great they got along. He just felt completely left out.

Sasuke had compared me to a mother whose husband was cheating on her. It was not nice to hear. I also had an injured ankle still, from my jump, so in the end, it was good Itachi wasn't there to watch me climb the stairs slowly.

When Danzou put me in a team with the mission to help Orochimaru leave the country, I had a bad feeling. I did my job, trap the place and all. The anbu who landed in my biggest trap had been Itachi, the irony. I didn't think he had recognized me. I jumped in the river when I could, stopped my henge and hid, a Chakra Concealing Seal on.

My henge was simple. It was Sasuke. Adult Sasuke, of course. Itachi probably would have recognized his face, but he didn't know his adult silhouette or about the missing arm.

However, in the first mission of the new year, we ran into Kiri. They had been spying along the border apparently. It was not just any shinobi either, but anbu. I didn't like this at all. Minato either. He didn't want to say it, but there were tensions growing.

I didn't like it.

The spying was…going, too. I was reporting very non-interesting facts about them. After all, Itachi and Shisui were not telling me anything when I'd see them, even if it was obvious there was something. I wasn't going to team training anymore, I didn't have time and even if I tried to see the boys, it was getting rarer and rarer. Yasuo was not happy about it, I didn't know if it was puberty or something, but he could get clingy sometimes. Kou would have a suspicious glint in his eyes sometimes. I didn't want to involve them in this mess anyway, even if Yasuo…if things followed the original path, he'd die.

I had told Minato I was spying on them. This cursed mark Danzou had put beneath my tongue had been broken months ago. Deactivated was the right term, because it was still here for appearances, but it was not working any longer. Minato wasn't comfortable with what I was doing, with what I had done, I knew it, but it was necessary. Someone had to get their hands dirty sometimes. He had told me to keep doing what I was doing, but that Shisui and Itachi were reporting to him already, and the Council as well.

Basically, I was spying on the Uchihas for Danzou, but I was spying on Danzou for Minato. Itachi and Shisui were spying on the Uchihas for Minato, but Itachi was probably also giving information to his father about Konoha to a certain degree. Maybe.

If he was a double agent, did it make me a triple agent? It sounded cooler than it was. I mean, I guess officially I was a double agent, but with Itachi and our special conditions thrown in the mix…

It was a headache, that's what it was.

January went by, February too. By March, Minato showed me a non-official letter from the Mizukage. It was written he wanted my return to his ranks, ranks I belonged to due to my birth in Kiri, and that Konoha had until July to send me back there or they would attack.

Yagura wouldn't do that if he didn't have something up his sleeve, or Obito.

"You think there is something behind this then," Minato-san said, sitting on the chair of my desk. He was leaning his crossed arms on the back of it.

"Kiri is not the strongest village, there is Hoshigaki-san and a few other Swordsmen there still, but…he wouldn't. Not for someone."

"I don't like this."

"I know but…well, if I get close to him, maybe…"

"No, I'm not sending you back there." He sighed guiltily. "I am already asking a lot of you."

"It's nothing I'm not willing to do. I would have done it nonetheless anyway." He was conflicted. "The moment this mess is over, Danzou will know I'm a traitor and…I guess it's better if I'm no longer here?"

"What about Itachi?" I pursed my lips.

"If he avoids being a mass murderer and keeps his family alive, his honor and all that shit shinobi care about, I can leave. He'll be fine with or without me." He looked like he wanted to add something but didn't. "And anyway, it's not really fair, is it?"

"What?"

"I'm helping Konoha with its issues when I have no real connections to it. It's not fair to let my birth village rot. If I can help here, I can help there too."

"You'd be on your own." My eyes became firmer.

"Not a first, and it's a jungle I know my way in."

"…you want to leave Konoha, don't you?" I sighed.

"Yes."

"We have until July, we'll talk about it later."

"It's the village against me, there's no questioning it," I told him as he was leaving. He didn't say anything and left.

Going back to Kiri…I meant it. I had had the time to think about it. I was trying to help the Uchiha case on my side. Itachi had a shot to have real closure and make peace with his past if he succeeded in avoiding the coup and massacre.

I could get closure as well. I didn't belong in Konoha, I was a fraud wearing the leaf symbol. I could make peace with my past too this time, maybe, hopefully.

I just knew I couldn't stand to see Itachi with anyone from his clan right now, except for his brother.

I was suffocating.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have liked it, please do let me know in reviews! Thank you to Guest for the review! Poor Itachi, I'm not making their relationship a very happy thing right now and it's...nah, you guys will see in the following chapters.

Bye!