Chapter 18: Breaking Free - Part One

Keep a little fire burning; however small,
however hidden

-Cormac McCarthy

"You'll have to go back at some point. I fixed as much as I could but I am no medic. I healed as much as I could but the damage to your brain was… immense."

Akira ran her fingers through silky dark orange strands absentmindedly. She wondered idly if he would allow her to braid it. "Trying to get rid of me already?" she teased, hand pushing further into his coat. It was as if was eating her hand.

Kurama huffed. One of his tails flicked against her, causing her hair to tangle in a gust of air. "I'm bound to you. Couldn't get rid of you even if I tried."

Akira paused in her efforts to tame her wayward tresses as a chill crept up her spine. Her jaw worked tirelessly as she chewed on her lower lip. "But I was gone." She whispered. Her gut twisted. "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't break free. It was as if-"

His hum vibrated through her body, calming like a cat's purr. "Your soul was sealed away." Large red eyes fixed on her trembling form.

But not completely. Akira thought sourly, gaze falling to her hands. Though she wasn't aware of what her body was doing—at least not until she had been freed—she'd felt everything.

The whippings. All the broken bones. The genjutsu. Being drowned. Everything.

"Steady yourself. You are currently in the Hokage's office with your father's student and his rival."

Her eyes snapped back to his. "How-"

It was his turn to look away. "As I said. I am bound to you."

Dread crawled up her throat. He saw everything. She wished to do many things. Scream, cry, curse—but she was unable to do any. It was there, willing its way up her throat. But that meant accepting what happened. What was done to her.

Instead, she swallowed it like vomit and smiled sarcastically. "I'm guessing they are trying to figure out what to do with me."

A nod. "The green one wants to take you to T&I." he grumbled, tails swishing irritably. "What do you plan to do?"

Akira shrugged. No surprise there. If she wanted to get technical, she was a missing-nin. The fact she was even breathing was astounding. Had she been in their shoes, she would've cut off her head and wiped her hands of the whole thing.

Danzo, for all of his faults, was impeccably thorough. He created false reports of a woman fitting Akira's description throughout Fire and Lightning as she slunk through the shadows to do his bidding. Enough to make it seem as if she was adept enough to slip by sensors and trackers alike.

No one found it the least bit strange Akira never contacted any Konoha-nin. They actually believed she had just left Itachi after the loss of Shisui. Abandoned her brother without so much as a letter.

Idiots, the lot of them. If she was going to run away, Naruto would have been right by her side. With or without his blessing.

"Minato's student looks fit to explode," he said.

"Heh. Yeah, he probably wants to slit my throat and act like I never existed." She replied bitterly.

"…He just threatened the green beast."

Tired of the play-by-play Akira got to her feet and slowly made her way to the edge of the pond. It was dark, tinged scarlet.

Kurama chuckled, voice lilting in amusement. "He called the Hokage a fool."

"Enough!" she shouted, crouching down on her heels. Her hands ran angrily through her hair as she tried her best to stay calm.

His glare was a physical thing, pressing down on her shoulders. "Hiding from reality will not make it go away. You'll have to face them eventually."

"I don't care. They can do whatever they see fit."

"Like Sadao?"

Akira turned sharply, eyes ablaze with fury. Her chest heaved as she raised a quivering finger his way in warning, "DO NOT..." her voice cracked, "Say that name."

Kurama's eyes glowed in their dim surroundings. His lips pulled back in a nasty sneer, "This is just like Uni." she whimpered pitifully but he continued, "The moment things become too much you show your belly and give them exactly what they want."

"They tortured me! I had no choice!" she screamed, arms hugging herself.

"And in turn you create a seal so abominable that even a Tailed Beast couldn't break it. How many innocent children do you think they brainwashed because of your actions?

Just how many lives must you ruin before you take responsibility? Your team?"

"It wasn't my fault, Kurama please-"

"Naruto?"

Wounded rage stole Akira's breath—she choked. Saw white. A quiet hum stuffed her ears like cotton.

She hadn't even realized she had been forced back into her body until she felt arms—not a tail—restraining her. The world swayed in a dizzying array of colors bleeding together. Someone was screaming.

Like a steady drop of water eroding a feeble mountain, things began to clear. Someone repeatedly kept murmuring her name.

"Akira… it's okay. Calm down, you're safe."

It was then she realized the screams were from her. And the swaying was someone gently rocking her back and forth. Her fingers dug into their clothes desperately as she took in her surroundings with wild eyes. Everything was hazy but she could make out the familiar surroundings of the Hokage's office.

At the strong scent of bergamot (she ignored the heavy tang of blood that overwhelmed her already tender senses) her mouth began moving on its own. "He needs me. I must go—what if he takes him. He's not safe—" she repeated it over and over, each plea becoming more desperate.

Others were speaking, too. "-a threat to the village-" someone said. She'd only met him once but it had to be Guy. Unlike their first meeting he stood at the ready.

The arms around her tightened. "The only threat she is, is to herself." Kakashi said sternly over her rambling.

"She almost unleashed the Kyuubi!"

"She was scared-"

"Scared? Kakashi, she ripped apart three comrades!"

Akira abruptly stopped, words freezing on her tongue. KI spiked out of her control. The conversation halted when she spoke one word. That was right. She escaped the brainwashing and killed her 'team'.

"ROOT." She interjected, wild gaze sharpening to fall on Hiruzen. Kakashi sucked in a breath.

The Hokage watched her as he used to. Sitting behind his desk, analytical and cold. "Hello, Akira-chan. It seems as if you have a story to tell."

Story. He wasn't looking for an explanation—he had already come to the decision she was going to spin some lie. To spout out a sob story in order to–what? Infiltrate the village to bring upon its downfall?

Her eyelids fluttered. Then—she laughed. Giggled, really.

She didn't mean to, it was just—Christ–Kurama wasn't joking when he warned her about the brain damage.

"FUCK YOU!" she bellowed heatedly, spit flying from her mouth. Kakashi's hold tightened in order to hold her back as she thrashed. "I tried warning you two years ago and you dismissed me. So, you can take your bullheaded ignorance and shove it up your ass old man."

Guy spoke up, adamant. "You became a missing-nin of your own violation." he turned to the Hokage, "She needs to be taken to T&I-"

Akira barked out a laugh. "Lock me up and I can't guarantee the safety of those around me."

Guy gestured to her in a 'see?' movement. "She's a threat to the safety of the village."

"Only when caged. Get off me." she pushed Kakashi away, hands clutching her aching head. He let go. When the pain subsided some she met Guy's suspicious gaze with a glare. "Had enough of that to last 20 lifetimes."

He ignored her, arms crossing as he turned back to the Hiruzen once more. What a good little soldier. "We don't know what she wants."

Akira sneered, "Quit talking like I'm not here. I've told you what I want-"

"Naruto?" interrupted Kakashi, who'd been silently watching. He still sat close as if she might disappear if not in arms reach. Or attack.

She nodded. "Bingo. I'm even asking. Nicely."

"Why would you want him after being gone for two years?" Kakashi was defensive. So, team 7 was a thing already. It left an acidic taste on her tongue.

She didn't want to say where she had been for those two years. Didn't feel as if any of them deserved an explanation after so thoroughly abandoning her. She cared not the fact they would have had no clue what she'd been through.

"Where did I go, then?" she asked blandly. "I've been missing, yes. But I never left Konoha."

A hush fell over the office.

"…what?"

"Unplug your ears. I've been here almost the entire time. Those bastards-" she took a deep breath, wiping a tired hand down her damp face. Don't think of them.

"Almost?" encouraged Kakashi.

"They sent me on missions for the village. Do you think Kumo just woke up one day and decided to keep quiet?"

"What does that mean?" spoke the Hokage.

Akira huffed, threw herself back into the couch she sat on and put an arm over her eyes. They knew nothing of what Danzo had been up to. Typical. The panic was back again with a vengeance. She shook her head, defeated. "You're all idiots."

"Akira-"

"But I'm the biggest idiot of all because we're so fucked and it's my fault–yours too but mostly mine-"

"Akira…" A hand fell on her shoulder, putting a stop to her ramblings. She peaked a halfhearted glare at Kakashi from behind her arm. "What happened… What are you so afraid of?" His voice was gentle. Kind. Everything she was unworthy of.

She straightened enough to stare despondently at her feet, weighing her options.

On one hand she didn't want to recount all the things she went through. Didn't want to open the wound so soon.

On the other hand, it was the only path that led to her seeing her brother again. She wasn't a missing-nin, far from it. Though they were unsavory, those missions she went on were undoubtedly meant to serve the village.

Danzo's village.

"Tell them." Kurama pressed.

Akira swallowed past the fear and resentment. "Two years ago, Sadao ambushed my team in Uni with the help of their village head under Danzo's orders. He used the chakra suppression cuffs your dear Hokage gave them access to."

Hiruzen rubbed his temples, shoulders slouching, but said nothing in his own defense. She didn't mention the only way he could have gotten ahold of them was from her Godfather. It was too painful to admit to herself. She'd thought of Jiraiya as a father figure, someone who loved her. But he was just as guilty as the rest of them.

She continued, "Over the course of our 'detainment' he forced me to make a forbidden seal." she moved her hair to the side where her mark lay.

"What does the seal do?" Guy sounded uncertain. Akira met his gaze head on.

"Brainwashing. Complete and utter devotion to the caster." she turned to the Hokage, "He's making an army."

Hiruzen stood suddenly, knocking things off his desk in his haste. With a flash of his chakra ANBU swarmed in the room. "Guy, go check on Naruto Uzumaki. A team is already watching over him but it doesn't hurt to check. You will be watching over team seven while Kakashi takes Akira to a safe house.

The rest of you, follow me. I need to have a few words with my old friend."

It was a whirlwind of commotion after that. Akira found out through whispers outside of the safe house that Danzo hightailed it out of Konoha after a brief altercation with the Hokage.

Chaos ensued.

Villagers were confused what one of their beloved elders could have done to warrant being run out. The Hokage foolishly kept quiet, creating unrest. He would have to say something soon and reinstate her back into the village–basically he had a lot of shit on his plate. Which served him right.

Though Danzo had his mini army, he was still forced to run from the very place he swore to protect like the rat he was. And Hiruzen was left to pick up the mess.

It didn't matter how far he ran. She would find him and kill him regardless. Sure, Akira should probably save his death for Satsuki's revenge but she couldn't find it in herself to care. She didn't have the time to wait for the little Uchiha to become strong enough to take him down.

As for Akira, she was in the safehouse's bathroom having finished a relaxing bath after being checked over by an ANBU medic. Her brain damage had been bad, to say the least. It took a two-hour healing session to get to a stable state–and with it came a lot of clarity.

Honestly, she was a little embarrassed about her reactions to the Hokage. If she had been a little more level headed things could have gone a bit more smoothly.

Steam filled the small space of the bathroom as she stepped out of the tub. Water splashed onto the off-white tiled floor. She took in a moisture rich breath and grabbed a nearby towel to begin drying herself off.

There was something about a nice soak that put her in a decently good mood. It had also been a while since she last gotten a good look at herself. The person standing in the recently wiped mirror was almost unrecognizable.

Without the baby fat on her face, she looked disturbingly similar to her father. If not for the difference in hair and eye color (along with the whisker markings), she could pass as a female Minato.

Her mother was there, too, in the gentle sweep of her jaw and apples of her cheeks.

Which was probably why Kakashi couldn't bring himself to look her directly in the eyes. It was always over the shoulder or her forehead he focused on. His guilt always put a citrus tang in the air, almost choking her when he was around.

Akira walked out of the bathroom, one hand toweling her hair while the other messed with the drawstring of her borrowed sweatpants. They were baggy on her, unsurprisingly. She didn't know where the clothes came from but someone must've had a personal vendetta against her because nothing fit.

She paused at the sight of Kakashi sitting on the couch in the small living room, elbows on his knees and hands clasped together tightly. His brows were scrunched together deeply. He glanced up only long enough to acknowledge her presence before it fell once more. Citrus filled her nostrils.

There were still traces of their fight on him. One of his hands was wrapped tightly in a white bandage. Bruises dotted his half-covered face; a plaster laying on his cheekbone.

He had been in and out of the rotation of ANBU who would keep watch over her. Usually they would stay out of her field of vision. She had a slight problem with seeing people in masks but it was getting easier considering the medic wore one.

So far there weren't any ROOT members she'd sensed in the Hokage's close circle of elite. It led her to believe Danzo had called most of his own force when he ran. Though she didn't think he would be stupid enough to take all of them, at least there weren't any in Hiruzen's direct circle.

Ignoring the awkward silence, Akira made her way into the kitchen. The safe house had an open concept so while he wasn't out of sight it gave her something else to focus on. She opened the sparse refrigerator and grabbed a cool bottle of water.

After squeezing it to make sure it wasn't tampered with, she opened it and took a long swig–almost choking when Kakashi abruptly broke the silence for the first time in days.

"I looked for you."

Forcing the water to go down the correct pipe Akira turned to him with a carefully blank expression.

He continued. "Think I was close to finding out once, too. In the capital when all of those nobles were being killed…" his eye met hers, "you left one alive."

Ah. Her last failed mission. Unconsciously she touched her neck, feeling the rough scar tissue slit across her throat.

It wasn't a good memory.

Not that any of them were necessarily decent. She was sent out as a honeypot operative in the capital just as he said. There she seduced her targets to get them to bed where they would be most vulnerable.

The woman had more bodyguards hidden within the room she had not sensed. One got the drop on her and slit her throat. Akira would've died if it had been just a little deeper. The scar still remained. An ever-present reminder that she wasn't indestructible.

Sadao hadn't been happy with her, either. Mistakes were not tolerated. When she managed to drag herself back to the base, he'd thrown her into that cursed torture chamber for two weeks.

That was six months ago.

Akira's jaw worked as she thought of what to say. What could she say? All that time she spent thinking she'd been abandoned, and now she was being told that wasn't the case? By the very person who had abandoned her years before that?

Who was stupid enough to chase a ghost?

"Do you expect a thank you letter?" Bitterness. That wasn't what she wanted to say but it came out anyway–as if she couldn't pull enough gratitude from her withered heart to just say thank you.

What was he expecting? She couldn't help but wonder. Sure, half of her felt choked up that though he hadn't found her at least someone tried.

But the resentful, wounded half bared its teeth because it should never have happened in the first place. How dare he hold that over her head as if he were some hero?

His hands came up instantly in a placating gesture, "No," he insisted. "I just thought-"

"It would make me less resentful? Wrong. Get to what you really need to talk to me about because I don't have the patience for your shitty attempt at open communication."

He bowed his head. "I deserved that."

Akira walked to a nearby cushy chair and plopped down facing him. "So, what does your darling Hokage wish to know?"

There had been enough radio silence while they tried to figure out everything on their own. It was about time for them to actually ask what they were up against. Though it was rather surprising, he sent Kakashi and not someone from T&I.

She voiced her question instead of waiting for who knows how long for the idiot to piece together a way to ask her the questions without setting her off.

Kakashi looked a little sullen when he answered. "He thought you would be more receptive if it was someone you already knew."

She scoffed. They kept treating her like a cracked glass sculpture on the verge of shattering into a million pieces. She was a kunoichi. Made of Teflon. The only reason she had been so emotional the first time was all the brain damage she took from breaking out of the seal (or so she told herself).

It didn't make her receptive in the least. Kakashi wasn't exactly the poster boy for stability, nor was he a therapist she wanted to speak her truth to. Alas, they needed something concrete to nibble into so she would allow it this once.

"Do you want the list done in alphabetical order or by level of threat?"

There was a confused pause. "Level of threat...?"

"Good choice. I'm sure you've already gone through the underground bunker and came back empty-handed." it was more of a statement. As if someone as thorough as Danzo would leave anything substantial behind.

Then again, he left her behind. And that was his first mistake. He should've sent a strike team to kill her at the very least.

Kakashi nodded, "We found a few ROOT members there who didn't get the memo to run but that's about it. They either refuse to talk or take their own lives before the Yamanaka can use their jutsu."

Yeah, it couldn't be pleasant going to the brain of a dead person. Not to mention the Yamanaka would need to use a machine to get into their minds and past all of the blocks put into the ROOT members heads. It would take time they didn't have.

Which was good. It gave Akira the chance to use her knowledge of what Danzo's done without being questioned on how she came across such information. It was the one good thing that came from her brainwashing.

"Danzo wouldn't leave behind anyone with a high clearance anyway. Thankfully you have me. Since they thought I was never going to get out of the seal, I was privy to many of his dealings. Like the fact he was amassing an army in order to put them in ANBU to easily assassinate the Hokage to take his place. He did it before, too. Though you know that."

"Sounds like something he would try again. So why didn't he?"

Akira leaned back into her seat, hand under her chin. "The brainwashing isn't perfect. He has to retrain everyone and that takes time. I'm sure he was close before I was taken out of the picture and revealed everything."

"Do you know where he would have run to?"

"They're not stupid enough to go somewhere I would know of. But I have a hunch that he would likely go to Orochimaru."

Confusion pinched his brows. "Orochimaru?"

"They worked together on human experiments. Don't tell me you're not the least bit curious how he had a wood release user in ROOT."

"Yamato." he sighed. "You've met him before I assume?"

"Would've been harder not to run into him. He was one of Danzo's favorites, just as I was. When he left I was kept under tight surveillance. Lucky for him they never put him under the seal in fear they might lose his wood release. And before you ask, no, I don't know where Orochimaru's bases are either."

There was a heavy pause that filled the space between them, as if he were thinking how she could be any more useless. Akira broke it after taking another sip of her water. "But I do have a hunch that the Snake will be willing to use Danzo and his resources to infiltrate the Village. Say, when it's open to other villages."

That got his attention. For the first time he made direct eye contact with her, expression falling. "You don't mean…"

The smile that pulled on her lips was more like a beast baring its teeth. "They'll make their move during the Chunin exams."

"That's only two months away."

He already signed the paperwork for his team to join, she was sure. There was no going back. "All the more reason for the Hokage to hurry in allowing me to re-join his forces."

Kakashi looked away once more. "I'll see what I can do but the elder council is against it, along with a couple Clan Heads."

Akira waved a dismissive hand. "The elder council is full of old fogies under Danzo's thumb. Look into them and you'll find their misdeeds and arrest them. The Hokage's rule overrides all when there is a direct threat to the Village anyway. And the clans wouldn't want me to come back because I could potentially bring back the Uzumaki clan and have a voice among them."

"...You know a lot about the inner workings of the village." it wasn't said suspiciously but it still pissed her off.

"My father was Hokage." she reminded him blandly, "Of course I picked up a few things."

And she would. Bring back her clan, that is. The smallest number of people a clan needed was three. That gave her two months to get out of the damned safe house and find Karin Uzumaki.

End

A/N: Short chapters until I get back in the mood for figuring out this Fic. Thank you everyone who leaves a review-even the bad ones. One day I'll go back and get rid of some stuff and make the story better but that'll probably be done after I complete the entire story.

Review, favorite and follow 3