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

When I opened my eyes, I saw Itachi's bed already made. I sat up in mine and yawned, looking around. The curtains were still closed, the soundproofing seals I had put around last night still here. I had the ones to prevent anyone from spying on us to put around as well.

Essentially, it prevented anyone from the outside to use chakra in the area.

I rubbed my eyes and peeked through the curtains. A heavy coat of mist was over the village, the dawn barely peeking. The sun usually didn't rise until nine in Kiri in winter. However, for the many bad memories I had of the place, seeing the lights of houses and apartments gleaming faintly through the white mist still…was beautiful.

"Oh, morning." I dropped the curtain and went back to bed.

"Morn…breakfast?" He had two cans of tea and a few things to eat. He nodded and put everything on my lap before sitting in front of me. "Isn't there breakfast on the first floor?"

"Yes, but with everyone else and I wasn't sure you'd be down for that." He looked at the can in his hand. "I've never seen this brand I think."

"It's a good one. Expensive though, so a minority of people know the taste." He pursed his lips.

"Could we go see the village in the afternoon you think? Once Shikaku-sensei has all of the information, I don't think he would mind."

"…sure, there is a whole district that was left out yesterday, probably a third of the village." He frowned. I opened a pack of seaweed rice crackers. "Kiri is based on a caste system from the birth of the village. The founding clans are upper-class and rule the place after the Mizukage, we are in their district. It is not very big. Then the middle-class is made from people who allied themselves or already were allied with the founding clans or Kiri. There are more of them, but not much. Then, the lower-class are those beaten by Kiri and clans and forced to join. They're treated like dirt more often than not. Their district takes a third of the village because of how many of them there are. Poverty, drugs, crimes, prostitution, name one thing that is illegal, you'll find it there." And Yagura made sure to keep it that way. "Middle-class and upper-class together make up another third of the village. Then it would be any important places shinobi-related and…" He raised a brow. "The old clans' district. It was like a ghost town within Kiri when I joined, so it should be the same right now or not far off."

"What class are you?"

"Middle. The Yuki clan was allied with the Houzuki clan, which was a founding clan. The Nidaime was one of them." I took a sip of my red tea, bringing a flood of memories back in a second. "I'm sure you wouldn't make it obvious you're disturbed or anything but be ready to hear about the Hoshigaki clan around."

"It's a clan?" I couldn't say I was surprised Hoshigaki-san never said anything about it, he was the odd one out in his clan after all.

"They're upper-class and enjoy the Bloody Mist regime way too much. The funny thing is Hoshigaki-san may have done a lot of awful things for Kiri, like most of us, I have never seen him parade around like his kinsmen. They strut in the village like they're royalty and it wasn't a surprise to see them in the lower-class district to… 'assert' their privileges over people." I looked up at him. "Take your most radical kinsmen but they actually act on their words and in gruesome ways." He frowned at the sheet. "I think the worst one is Hoshigaki Buri. She's Hoshigaki-san's first cousin, tall, long wavy black hair, with gills on the sides of her neck. If you see her, just walk away, she's not worth it." How many times had she tried to get me on her side to be in Yagura's favor?

"Okay." I lay back down, my head in my fluffy pillow.

The drastic gap between upper-class and lower-class, their quality of life, had rarely been more obvious than by being in this hotel.

"Is the village going to try to hide everything wrong in it?"

"Hum, maybe try to smooth it out, but not hide it. They care about their scary reputation, they won't cower from maintaining it, especially with foreign genin here. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to make us give up on the exams before they even start."

"Favoritism toward their genin then?" I scoffed. "No?"

"Hell no, they're going to have a harder time than us, I'm ninety-nine percent sure. They'd rather have one strong, overpowered genin and lose all the others than have many of them pass, but barely with no great achievement during the exams. Expect them to have different directives for the exams than us even. Quality is preferred over quantity here, if you don't show you're valuable, you're cannon fodder." I took in a sharp breath. "We're here to be Chuunin, they're going in these Exams with surviving in mind. Although, they might have more opportunities to be promoted with their behavior outside of the Exams. For all we know, theirs started when we stepped foot in the village." He didn't say anything and took a sip of his tea. "Konoha and Kiri are like night and day."

"Anything else?" I glanced at the window.

"If…people know who my dad is in town, then they might…be very unpleasant to me. Don't bother responding if it happens." This got me a small, confused glance.

"If someone disrespects you in front of me, I can't let the…"

"You can, and you will, because I am telling you to. You're in a foreign land, don't attract unwanted attention 'tachi, especially not for my sake." He glared, but quickly averted his eyes with a click of the tongue.

"Why would they disrespect you if you have nothing to do with the Mizukage?"

"Because in a way, I still do. I told you my dad was considered for the job of the Fourth Mizukage. He was well-respected in the village and from what I had gathered, his departure caused a lot of noise. Then, Yagura got the hat, and it turned worse than it already was. I was one, so many people connected my birth to my father leaving Kiri to rot at the hands of a tyrant."

"It doesn't sound like it is all there is to it." I shrugged.

"It's all I know, it's all I was ever told." He didn't push.

"I don't have to like it." I chuckled and leaned on the bed to kiss his nose.

"Thank you, but don't bother fighting for my honor or anything like that with people like them." He nuzzled his nose against mine.

"Don't keep everything to yourself then," he replied quietly.

"I'll try."

"Hn."

"Only the Third Exam will be in Kiri," Shikaku explained to them. "The First and Second Exams are all in one in a way. Each team will be left on one of the many islands of the Land of Water. You qualify for the Third Test if you are in the firs twelve to reach Kiri, knowing there are twelve genin from the Mist participating out of seventy." So, they were throwing them in the wilderness they supposedly did not know to see how they were behaving and leading in an unknown scenario.

Akane did not seem surprised, and neither was he. Kiri was straightforward, she had warned him about it, and their Chuunin Exams were straight to the point as well. Konoha's main reason to have a theorical exam was to avoid useless deaths by eliminating people based on their personalities and maturity.

Kiri did not care at all.

"It will start in six days. I don't know much more. You will be blindfolded and are expected to have supplies of your own. The only thing you will be provided with is a map of the Land of Water without any indication of where you are." The Nara scratched the back of his head. "I'm going to look for information for you so you know where you are at least, you should do the same."

"What about training?" Akane asked him.

"I trust you know what to do already." Shikaku cracked his back. "I'm not going to be on your back too much, if you need something leave a note in my room. If it is an emergency, you know how to contact me," he said, now gazing at Itachi, who nodded. "Good. Then have fun, but not too much." He left.

"What should we do? Train?" She shrugged. "You're still okay with visiting?"

"Sure," she replied, her mind elsewhere.

Her mind was elsewhere most of the time, but they stuck to each other like glue. He hated seeing her like that, she was too deep in her thoughts for her own good. He wanted to make her talk to him, but the words would get stuck in his throat each time. He never was…outward with her when she was like this simply because he did not know how to approach her or help her. He had been struggling himself for so long he had no idea how to help her with possibly similar wounds. Even in the nights where she would be sad on her mother's death anniversary, the most he would do was to face her back in bed.

He really needed to do better.

"What are you doing?" She briefly looked up from her seals.

"Changing them a little. That reminds me, make sure no one sees the booklet I made you. My seals are influenced by Kiri's fuinjutsu, I don't want them to notice."

"Fine." He crouched in front of her and took her chin between two fingers. He slowly moved her head from right to left.

"Itachi?"

"You're tired. Where are you going at night?" She froze for a second and sighed.

"I really thought I had been discreet."

"I struggle sleeping since we got here," he explained flatly. "Where are you going?"

"I'm not going anywhere weird or dangerous, I just…go somewhere secret to think."

"What aren't you telling me?" She took his wrist in her hand and moved it, forcing him to let go of her chin.

"There is a lot going on in my mind currently and none of it is about you, just…I need space." He looked down, his hair tickling his cheek.

"Hn." He stood up, Akane's concerned eyes following him.

"It's not…it's not against you or any…" He knew that. He knew what she had lived in Kiri had nothing to do with him. Yet, he couldn't keep himself from being hurt by her words, his heart twisting almost.

"I know," he said blandly. "Don't get in troubles then." He just went to bed, his back to her.

He heard her opening the window in the middle of the night, but she didn't leave. She closed it and slowly made her way to his bed to stop next to it. He just opened his bed to her, Akane not wasting a second to slip beneath the covers and snuggle against him.

"I saw my teammates," she finally admitted under her breath. "They could, and they are, participating and I wanted to see them first and get used to the idea of them…not knowing me." She leaned her forehead against his shoulder.

"And?" She sighed.

"My…old teammate's younger brother spotted me and made it his mission to make sure I wasn't a threat." She clenched her hands on his shirt. "Sorry. It didn't seem important."

"I get why you want to do things on your own, but you can tell me," he said after a few seconds of silence. "Why didn't you?"

"I…I was another person back then, and it's someone I've buried a long time ago. She's haunting me, not you, that's all." She moved her face so that she was in front of his, squished together in the small one-person bed. "Sorry." He knocked his forehead against hers lightly.

"I'd rather know what's going on, even if I can't do anything, than not knowing." She nodded.

"Of course." He hugged her tightly. "We leave tomorrow, we should sleep."

"Then let's sleep, but you're staying here tonight." She chuckled in her ear.

"It's fine by me."

The next day, they were led to ships. Once they could no longer seen the other ships, they were separated in teams and blindfolded. It took a few hours, but they were dropped on solid ground. They didn't waste time to remove the blindfolds to take in their surroundings. The ship was only a dot on the misty sea that Itachi saw the condensed air coming from his mouth. He glanced around to see a pure white ground, the fresh snow freezing his toes.

"Did you pack like I advised you to?" He nodded. "Okay, let's change." They changed their shoes for closed ones and put a winter cloak around them. "I'm going to take the lead. This is a war hidden as a race anyway."

Only the genin from Kiri knew their ways around their country. They were the prime targets to get information on how to reach Kiri first, and the ones to get rid of first in a race.

They followed a snowy path until an old wooden sign appeared in their view. Akane ran to it and he followed. It was half broken, and snow covered it, so Akane jumped to remove it from the letters. Itachi frowned slightly at the words. He could read half of them just fine, but the other half was in a foreign language and alphabet.

"What is this?" Akane blinked at him and followed his gaze.

"It's a language used back in the Warring States era. When Kiri came in contact with the continent, the language we speak started to spread like wildfire and this one started to be forgotten. It's still very present on a lot of things and there are places in the country where you should know how to speak it."

"Do you?" She raised a brow. "Speak it?"

"Small talk only. I used to use it with Hoshigaki-san when you were asleep because I didn't trust you to really be asleep." Kisame had never told him that, as far as he knew, Akane had always been hostile to him. "It didn't happen often, but sometimes…we would talk about this place." She shook her head. "Anyway, let's head to that village and then, I can plan our trip to Kiri." She pursed her lips and glanced at him. "You're really okay with not taking the lead?" He raised a curious brow.

"It wouldn't make sense knowing our current situation." She chuckled briefly.

"Of course, silly me." He took her hand and squeezed it.

"I trust you Akane." She widened her eyes at him. "But you know that already, don't you?" She nodded slowly.

"Sure I…I know that." He let go of her hand and she covered her cheeks with her hands. "But…but it's not the time to make me blush and clumsy 'tachi!" He couldn't keep his chuckle from escaping his lips. "Anyway, let's go before you freeze to death." He kept a close eye on her during the trip.

"Akane." She glanced at him above his shoulder. "Should I worry if you see someone you know?" She gulped.

"I should be okay, but you never know. Always expect the…"

"Unexpected, I know." She frowned. "You say this a lot." She scratched her cheek.

"I didn't realize."

Once in the village, Akane stopped in front a building bigger than the rest. The village was a ghost town though. The buildings were abandoned, some burned to the ground, others damaged…This village had seen the civil wars from up close and paid the ultimate price for it. Snow kept falling from the sky, even if the clouds were getting bigger and darker by the minute.

"We need to go south, so that way!" she suddenly stated, pointing to their right. "Sorry, I needed to get here to know exactly how to orient ourselves, it's bee…"

"Is a snowstorm coming?" he interrupted her firmly. She looked up.

"Huh, that's not good." She put the map back in his pouch. "If the wind starts to get stronger, we'll need to find shelter somewhere. For now, we need to reach to coast to get a boat."

"How do we get one?" he asked her as they started to run.

"Trust me!"

He couldn't help the glances thrown her way every once in a while. He had loved Sasuke more than everything since the day he was born, but Akane was the apple of his eyes. He hoped the worry eating at him was only his imagination, that the feeling she was hiding something from him was only his imagination.

Sadly, he knew deep down there was something she was hiding from him and that hurt. It was hurting a lot more than the bite of the cold and the wind on his skin.

I wasn't being honest with Itachi. I knew that, I knew he knew that from the suspicious glances thrown my way I was pretending I wasn't noticing, but there was an impulse in me telling me to keep Itachi and Konoha separated as much as possible from my connection to Kiri.

I wasn't being honest about my nightly trips in Kiri. At first, I was around, hiding where I knew they wouldn't find me and the one time I was spotted, I said I had gotten lost in the mist trying to find a convenience store. The woman looked at me with distrust but took me to one, nonetheless. Then I would go to where I would train with Mangetsu, a secret spot at the eastern side of the village. The entrance was hidden by bushes so thick you wouldn't notice there was a clearing behind it, a pound at its center and a river going from it to the sea, between two sides of the high rocks separating Kiri from the sea. On the right side, there was a small rock platform that could barely fit two people.

Once upon a time, I stumbled upon this little corner of peace after a harsh training session with Yagura, shortly after becoming a genin. I had passed out and when I had woken up, it was to Mangetsu's and Suigetsu's curious faces. Here, I 'accidentally' reached this place when Mangetsu was training there. It wasn't a lie when I told Itachi Suigetsu had spotted me, he just wasn't the first.

I had gotten some information about Kiri for Minato-san, but no one seemed to have any special interest in me. Yagura wouldn't task just anyone to talk to me either I think. I had to make the first move, and I had gone for Mangetsu.

I had to admit at first, it was…strange to see him after so long, baby fat still on his cheeks yet with sharp teeth and swords already deadly in his hands. He was suspicious at first, and I had the feeling on some level he wasn't buying my oblivious act, but he pretended he did. After just two days, he told me he could help me during the test if I wanted to, that I seemed to be a good opponent for the third part of the exams. He also told me he would get his teammates to help me to, so Dai and, surprisingly, Utakata-senpai. I had met them shortly before leaving, and the next night, where they would tell me what I should do during the exam, Itachi caught me red-handed.

I thought I could proceed as usual, but I knew deep down that if I had left, I would break something. I wanted to keep my relationship with Itachi separated from everything related to Kiri, from how I was back then, from how…a part of me, deep down, still was. I was ashamed of it and he was the last person I wanted to see me like this, which was odd, because I had the blood of my kinsmen on my hands too. It probably was less than him, but I was a tyrant's weapon for two years like he had been a pawn for Konoha. If someone could understand this, it probably was him.

Maybe it was what I wanted to avoid. I didn't want his pity when he'd look at me, or him treating me any different.

"I thought you wouldn't come Uzumaki!" Itachi instinctively reached out for my wrist, but I sped up toward Mangetsu. Utakata-senpai was sitting on the side of a fishing boat, glancing lazily at Itachi and I while Dai was securing things in the boat. Mangetsu glanced at Itachi up and down.

"Sorry, it took some time to find our way. Sorry for standing you up last night too." I smiled at them. "So, how are we going to proceed?" Itachi glanced at me briefly and stayed close.

"Well, a storm is coming but if we leave now, we'll reach the main island in time to find shelter there. Then, we go straight to Kiri." Mangetsu showed Itachi with his chin. "He's not coming though." I frowned. It was to be expected, but it still upset me.

"Akane, let's go," Itachi told me in a hush tone. I shook my head, my eyes not leaving Mangetsu's purple ones.

"You said you'd help me reach the Third Stage."

"Yes, you. It never extended to the Uchiha."

"We're a team, it's obvious!"

"Damn, you hid you were a Konoha-softy very well," Utakata-senpai commented idly. Itachi frowned deeply.

"What did you fucking call me?" I grunted through my teeth, making him blink in surprise.

"She does have fangs after all," Mangetsu said with a ferocious smirk. "Look, we're not taking any Konoha-softy with us, so the ball is on your side. You're one of us, it's the only reason I've extended an olive branch to you, but he's not one of us." I pursed my lips.

"Akane is a kunoichi of Konoha, not 'one of yours'," Itachi corrected him in a tone so cold I thought it would be what would freeze us to death and not the weather getting colder by the minute. Dai scoffed.

"She's as much Kiri as you're Konoha," the Terumi replied. He was Terumi Mei's younger brother, if he had something to say he would say it. Itachi took my wrist in his hand, keeping a death grip on it. "Basically, she is. She'll never stop being a foreigner in Konoha." I looked down for a second while Itachi seemed to be ticked off by this.

I glanced at the boat, which they all noticed. Things happened really quickly. I shoved Itachi behind me when a big wave of water came at us, curtesy of Mangetsu, and I froze it. I put an Explosive Seal on it that sent shards of ice toward them. Itachi slipped between them with his sharingans while the others were busy dodging them. Putting Dai in a genjutsu was not complicated and soon, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

I didn't have the time to warn him about the bubbles sent his way that I was stopping Mangetsu's sword with mine. We exchanged a few blows, metal grating against each other in a screeching sound, sparks flying.

"You can't pretend to be Konoha with that kenjutsu, it reeks Kiri," he said through his teeth, glaring at me. I glared back but didn't say anything. "What, cat got your tongue Uzumaki?" I put my foot on his thigh and leaned on it to jump back, dodging Itachi's fireball.

Itachi was next to me a second later, some patches of his cloak burned. They were going harder on him, I knew that.

When the smoke disappeared, Mangetsu was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was only Utakata-senpai, covered in red chakra.

"Oh shit." Itachi glanced at me.

"A jinchuriki?" I nodded. Senpai threw so many explosive bubbles at us the only thing I could do was make an ice dome around us as thick and hard as possible to wait until the bubbles were gone.

They kept blowing up around us and on my ice. Once the last explosion happened, I dropped what remained of my ice and stood up, like Itachi. I coughed at the smoke, but once this was gone as well, I could barely see them in the distance on their boat. Mangetsu had to be the one pushing it.

I screamed in frustration, tapping my feet against the ground.

"Haaa I had forgotten how annoying Mangetsu was when he was on the opposite side!" I groaned, clenching my hands in tight fists by my sides. "There are other boats nearby, but they were in a locked place in my memories."

"We should find a shelter for the storm." I nodded and we found a cave nearby. A few minutes later, the snow was falling harsher, and the wind was blowing the trees violently. Itachi made a fire, and we sat face to face, the fire between us.

I wanted to hide when Itachi's cold and angry eyes were on me.

"You have some explaining to do."

"I…huh…" I was at a loss for words.

"You've lied to me," he accused me with a deep frown.

"I haven't said everything, but is it really ly…" He threw the spoon he was about to use to it right next to my head. The spoon was now stuck in the wall behind me.

"My patience is running thin." I couldn't even keep up with his gaze, so I sighed.

"I was spotted by Mangetsu's brother, but Mangetsu was the one who spotted me first. At night…I wandered around a lot, pretending to get lost in the mist."

"Why would you do that for?"

"Because…because I'm on a mission." He raised a brow. "Kiri never hosted Chuunin Exams before, and Minato-san suggested it was probably because I was here and they…wanted to approach me or something. He asked me to gather data by being a bait, basically." He remained quiet, conflicted onyx eyes stuck on the flames dancing between us.

"And you didn't think about telling me earlier?" he asked in a quiet, cold voice. His tone was completely detached.

"It is my mission, not yours, and it was better to do it on my own." He clicked his tongue, looking away. "It's true Itachi! I'd meet with Mangetsu and played dumb to get information. They already knew where I was born so that in itself proved a lot! I just…it wasn't…"

"I didn't think you'd be that stupid." I twitched at that, almost recoiling into the wall. "You should have told me before we left the village, you were stupid, and foolish, to think you could do this on your own. We're supposed to be a team Akane, but you decided to go do things on your own." Wow, look who was talking.

"I'm sorry for not telling you and if it hurt you…"

"Hn." Okay, he seemed hurt by it. Was it his pride or his feelings, I didn't know, but he was hurt. "What else aren't you telling me?" Oh, so, so much.

"Minato-san knows you're like me." He narrowed his eyes, the accusation clear in them. "I didn't tell him, okay! He figured it out on his own, you're not the only genius around! He said there was something…old in your eyes and when he discovered about me being a Yuurei, he figured out you were the same." He looked back in the flames, the frown soothed out a little. "I didn't tell you about my mission because it didn't concern you. They're interested in me, not you, and you're lucky, trust me. If they try anything to Konoha because of me, then I should take the opportunity to learn things here. I know the place and how they work, it's not something Minato-san can allow himself not to use."

"I don't care." Huh? What did he mean by that? Wasn't he supposed to be super faithful and loyal to his village? How could he not care about the reasons Minato-san asked me to do that?

"I…I had a mission, you know how it i…"

"I don't care," he repeated, clenching his fists.

"Itachi?"

"You shouldn't bother with Kiri if it makes you so reckless. You're not one of them anymore and they don't even know you or care about you, so don't waste your time on them." That…hit a nerve.

I could feel anger starting to bubble in my veins and under my skin. How could he…it didn't matter if they didn't know me or care about me, I still did and if I could do something, anything to help them have a better life when they were the reason I had survived the Bloody Mist in the first place…

"It doesn't matter, I care about them, and this village is the one that made me a kunoichi, nothing will ever change that or my connection to that place." I scoffed at his glare. "I would never say your feeling are unwelcomed toward the Shisui we know today when they were fueled by the one you've lost." He glared harder.

We left the next day, stealing a boat easily. We didn't speak much until we were on the main island.

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

Bye!