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

Warning! Explicit content in the chapter!

Characters age:

Akane: 10 (43)

Itachi: 10 (26)

Shisui: 14

Naruto / Sasuke: 5

Kakashi: 19

"We need to stay close to each other, it's way too easy to get lost here," I told Itachi. He didn't reply, watching the misty swamps ahead of us. I almost sighed. He had not said much since we…fought. "The bad smell is normal, but if you stop smelling it, then it's bad."

"Can we go?" I nodded.

If anything…he reminded me of him when we started traveling together so many years ago.

Once out of the swamps and back in Kiri, I would ask him for his forgiveness and what I was supposed to do get it. Maybe he just needed to calm down on his own, or not see me for a while. It would be fine. I could understand him being hurt over me hiding things from him, things that could potentially endanger people.

It was hard not to get lost in the swamps and the mist was not helping. We walked until the night fell. As we found a spot to spend the night, we were under a tree where the ground was dry enough to sleep on, I looked at the map, a lit flashlight between my teeth. I pointed at a lake near Kiri and glided my finger to the village.

"We're here tomorrow afternoon," I said, removing the flashlight to wipe it with my shirt.

"Hn."

"I'll take the first shift, you can sleep." I forced a smile on my face when he raised his gaze to me. "Really."

"Hn."

I only had myself to blame for his behavior. God, stupid Akane, how stupid were you to…

A few hours went by, where I could still see Itachi's frown on his sleeping face. I heard a branch cracking under some weight, which made me take my katana. I retreated to Itachi and kicked him lightly in the stomach, waking him up. He was on his feet quickly.

In the blink of an eye, a huge water shark was coming our way.

"Katon: Great Fireball Technique," Itachi said, spitting fire. I strengthened it with my High Wind Technique. Vapor engulfed us, heat caressing my skin. I extended my sensing range as far as possible and put my hand on Itachi's shoulder, throwing him and I to the ground. We barely dodged a blow that went just above us. Itachi kicked me in my side, making me roll away as he moved as well. The sword landed where we were.

"Not bad kids, especially with your eyes not working." The man walked closer, letting us see his face. It was a full moon, the clouds moving because of the wind.

A gleam of the moonlight showed us the face of Hoshigaki Kisame, grinning. He had Samehada already, but I doubted he had had it for a long time. Mangetsu had started using it when Fuguki was its owner after all.

"You have to go through me to reach the village now." He disappeared in the mist. Itachi's back was quickly against mine.

"I need to be in front of him." To use his genjutsu, got it.

"I need some time," I replied, putting a knee on the ground.

"Understood." I gathered chakra in my finger and put it on the moist, muddy ground. With the chakra filling the mist, I would be too long to sense Hoshigaki-san with my regular sensing method.

Through the ground, I could track him and his movements to find the perfect opportunity to attack him. Minato-san had taught me how to do it that way as he wanted to exploit my sensing skills.

Anyway, Itachi deflected like he could the blows Hoshigaki-san was trying to inflict us. I knew he was struggling a little. He was very small next to the swordsman after all, his raw strength was not much next to him. Even later, Itachi was scrawny compared to Hoshigaki-san. I always wondered how he could keep up with the shark in taijutsu.

I frowned and clenched my hand on my katana. As Hoshigaki-san was about to hit Itachi withSamehada, I jumped to my feet and tried a death blow to his wrist. He saw it and tried to jump back, but his ankles were trapped in ice. I saw him gritting his teeth and without even blinking, he caught my blade with his free hand. Blood dripped freely from his palm and fingers, but I couldn't move my katana from his grip.

He used Samehada to break the ice, most likely getting chakra from it as well when suddenly, his body tensed. I could remove my katana and stepped back next to Itachi, whose sharingans were spinning lazily in his eyes.

"You've got him?"

"For now, we need to go." He packed his stuff quickly and we left.

"What do you mean 'for now'?" He didn't respond. "Itachi!"

"Don't be so loud," he scolded me coldly. I pursed my lips. "My regular sharingans aren't enough to keep him in a genjutsu without me around, even before. Samehada breaks him out of it. The only way I could knock him out efficiently was with the Mangekyou."

"Makes sense, Samehada is a being of its own almost," I muttered.

"How far are we?"

"Well, I have no idea where you started running to Itachi, so I don't kno…" I had water up to my knees, high plants on each side of the river. "Never mind, we've entered the marsh."

"Meaning?"

"Instead of going toward Kiri, we went north." I put a Chakra Concealing Seal on him, and myself, and activated them.

The only sound we could hear was the water around us as we were moving. We left the river when we could walk on the bank, our lower-halves brown because of mud in the river. It wasn't snowing here, but the wind was cold, and the mist was lesser than before, but still very much here.

"We don't have time to leave the marsh and then go to the village, we'll go from here." Itachi didn't say anything but…he was shivering. "Shit, are you very cold already?"

"I can handle it." I shook my hand and took a notebook from my back pouch. I unsealed the scroll for my mission change of clothes. I pushed it in his chest with a determined look in my eyes.

"I can't guarantee it's your size, but I've updated it before we left Konoha." He started to shake his head, but I frowned. "Itachi don't make me repeat myself. I'll be fine, but the weather is not the same as in the Land of Fire, you can get pneumonia in a matter of hours in your state." He frowned, torn, at the scroll.

"Fine, I won't be long." I nodded. It took him a couple of minutes. When he came back, he was completely dry. I accepted the scroll back.

"How does it fit?"

"The pants are a little big." I glared at him. How was I supposed to take that?

"Let's go." We didn't go far.

I was blocking Samehada way too soon. However, Hoshigaki-san grinned and stretched out his leg next to me. In one, swift move, he grabbed my right wrist and kicked my right shoulder back, dislocating it. I yelped in pain and dropped my weapon, only for Itachi to grab it and try to fight back. His skills in kenjutsu were too low though and he used shurikenjutsu the second he could, actually getting two kunai in the nerves of Hoshigaki-san's right arm, making him grunt and drop Samehada.

"Good, you can go through then," he said, still with his stupid grin, before grabbing his sword. He disappeared in the mist. My right arm was shaking, a burning pain going back and forth in it. Itachi remained tensed.

I took my notebook once more and, with my left hand, unsealed my medical scroll. I sighed in relief when I found a splint. I had the tendency to overpack and Kushina-san was worse than me, she made me take it in case my shoulder was dislocated.

I was not about to tell her she was right.

I knocked on the rock. It was a solid one. I got on my knees to be at the right height.

"Let me see your shou…" Itachi started to say, turning around but at the same time, I hit my shoulder against the boulder, setting it back in place. I bit my bottom lip to refrain myself from screaming in pain.

"It hurts…" I whined, my voice shaking a little. Itachi was next to me in a second.

"Why would you do that!?" I put the splint on and stood back up.

"You're getting mad even for that?" I retorted quietly. "It's nothing, I've done it before."

"But I'm here, I could have done it," he said, glaring at me.

"I could do it on my own, why would I ask you to do it?" I asked him, genuinely confused. He opened his mouth to say something but pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You're so infuriating Akane." There was a pang at my heart, and I massaged my right shoulder idly. It still needed medical assistance.

"Let's go, I don't want to stay here any longer," I muttered, looking at the ground.

"It's nighttime, we should rest."

"If we go at our best speed, we're there at the crack of dawn. It must be four right now."

"You need sleep."

"I'm fine," I said, getting tired of this. "I'm an Uzumaki Itachi, the one thing that never failed me is my stamina. I don't think anyone will interfere either, it seems this part of the exams is just a harder version of the Graduation Exams."

"You need to rest." I rolled my eyes, exasperated.

"I ca…Itachi!" I was on his back, holding onto his shoulder. His hands were beneath my knees.

"Your only job is to guide me," he told me, in a quieter tone. The anger had apparently diminished a little. I sighed, resigned.

"Alright."

Except for Akane giving him directions, none of them talked to each other. Itachi was still upset by what she had purposely hid from him, spying on Kiri by pretending to be a naïve genin was not nothing, and being a bait was not nothing either. Hell, he knew, he understood where the Hokage came from, but Akane was his goddaughter. Minato knew she was an adult…Itachi didn't care, he was angry at the Hokage for giving her this mission. Did he also ask her not to say anything to him or was it her?

He couldn't care less about the Hokage knowing he was older and most likely knew about his past crimes. His fight with Akane would keep happening in his mind.

He could control his feelings very well, even his anger. It took a lot to make him speak or act out of anger or frustration. Yet, when Akane told him what she had been doing in his back after their encounter with the opposite team, he had let his feelings win over his mind for one of the few times in his life. He knew, in hindsight, Akane's reasoning was logical.

He didn't say it though. Instead, he had said hurtful things and called her 'stupid'. She was not, she was far from it. She made mistakes, but she wasn't stupid, he knew that. He did say it though, and that it was a waste of her time to bother with Kiri or with them when he knew Mangetsu had meant a lot to her from her reaction when she heard about his death. Akane had never told him to leave in their three-year relationship except this one time when she had said he could leave if he wanted to.

He wasn't blind, he knew his words had hit a nerve, had hurt her. He felt terrible about it and knew he would need to apologize, but a small part of him was glad he could fully express how he felt, even if it hurt her in the process. It made him feel even more terrible. Then, when she got hurt, she didn't even ask him for help and just…

He was scared. Being here reminded him that no matter how much he could think it, Akane was not from Konoha and her birthplace was a still very active shinobi village who would love to have an Uzumaki. First, they said Akane was one of them, which irked him to no end, but then when she didn't ask for help…she probably didn't think twice about it and did it as an old habit, but he felt like she couldn't rely on him.

It hurt to think that. It hurt to see Akane seemingly blend in in Kiri better than she had in Konoha.

Deep down, he was terrified it would wake something in her, or spark something and that she would leave Konoha, and him. She had said she hated her time there, yet he recognized her fondness over the three shinobi they had encountered. She already had been friendly with someone from Kumo, she couldn't keep being friendly with people from other villages. It was dangerous.

Maybe it was Naruto's thing, but Naruto had the Kyuubi, Akane was…just herself, and it was more than enough already. She didn't need to emulate her cousin.

"Itachi," she called him harshly. He raised his head. "I've been calling you for a couple of minutes. We're almost here." He could see the morning sun trying to peek through the mist. "Keep going straight in front of you but be careful, we'll reach a cliff that overlooks the village, don't let the mist fool you and make you fall." He nodded and maybe forty minutes later, they were on said cliff.

Kiri had a certain charm to it, covered in snow like this.

Akane wiggled her way to the ground and walked to the edge of the cliff. The wind whistled between them for a few seconds. The whistle was broken by her controlled breathing.

"We should go." She left to the right, and he followed her. Fifteen minutes later, he saw the gates of Kiri between two sides of the mountains surrounding the village. There was an arch surrounding the door of the gates, in what appeared to be alabaster stones.

"Hold on here," one of the shinobi guarding the entrance said. "Are you participating in the Chuunin Exams?"

"Yes, we are." Itachi showed them their I.D. The second guard flipped through sheets of papers and crossed something on it.

"Uchiha Itachi, Uzumaki Akane, both under Nara Shikaku's tutelage place seventh and eighth in the race." Six people had already arrived then? It was…challenging. But Kisame had been expecting them and not just any jounin. "It is mandatory to go to the hospital to have a full check-up. Your sensei is going to be noticed and will meet you there."

"Thank you." He followed Akane quietly.

He didn't miss how her eyes became distant when she saw the hospital for a brief second before she pushed the doors open.

It was very different from Konoha. There was not as many workers and things just looked…old, worn-out. It looked like the hospital had remained stuck in the Second Shinobi War from a lack of means. When they went to the receptionist, saying they had just ended the first and second parts of the Chuunin Exams, the woman angrily hit the side of her computer screen to make it work. She muttered something about how the hospital needed money and that the death rate was very high because of it.

They were led to two different rooms. He left it quickly as the only thing he needed was to rest. He waited for Akane in the gloomy hallway. She left the examination room half an hour later, a white plastic bag in her left hand, a real arm splint supporting her right arm, a hook of the same fabric even supporting her thumb. She said goodbye to the doctor, and they met with Shikaku in the hall.

"What happened to your shoulder?" he asked Akane, who shrugged. She winced and put her hand on her wounded shoulder.

"Dislocated shoulder. They made sure I put it back in place right and healed the tissues and muscles around it. I need to rest now, and I have painkillers in case I need it."

"And you?"

"I'm alright," he told his sensei in a quiet tone. Akane raised a brow at him, like Shikaku.

"Let's go back to the hotel." They nodded and followed him, Akane yawning in her elbow on the way. Once in their room, Akane fell on her bed. He sat on his and Shikaku sat on the chair of the desk. "Alright, congratulations, you are qualified for the Third Exam, not that I ever doubted it. Anything I should know regarding the last two days?" Two days? It had seemed a lot longer.

Akane didn't pipe a word, and neither did he.

"I see. Once the twelfth genin will be here, you guys will have the time to get ready for the last Exam on January 1st. The Hokage will come to see it with Fugaku, as he is your official sensei Akane, and at least a bodyguard." His father would watch them fight then. "As the Exam in itself, it is like in Konoha. It is going to be a tournament to see your fighting skills. I don't know if it is going to be as much of a show as in Konoha but get ready for this amount of attention. Expect more than not enough." He glanced at him, then Akane. "So, what were the purpose of the two days you've had?"

"It was a mission simulation," Akane replied in a tired tone. "The worst-case scenario for anyone who was not from Kiri because we were thrown in an unknown territory, different from what we are used to in every aspect, in a complicated season and weather, and then we had a jounin interfering."

"And why was that?"

"To see how we would react against someone stronger," Itachi finished. "The goal was to reach Kiri, so we had to do it in spite of the jounin. The mission is the most important, we had to find ways to finish it in the worst situation."

"Exactly. Chuunins are team leaders, and there are times where your team is going to be in the worst or the worst situation possible. Yet, you have to find a way to finish the mission. Kiri decided to focus on the unknown environment and natural complications there are in the country instead of giving you another task like picking something up or such. With the little knowledge you had, it made sense you would make alliances and such to get through. You could say that the Exams officiously started the second you stepped foot in the Land of Water. It's…Akane?" Itachi glanced at her.

Her eyes were closed, her chest moving up and down as she was breathing peacefully. Shikaku stood up and bent above her.

"I'm not…sleeping…" she muttered sleepily, rubbing one of her eyes.

"Don't you want a good bath before?" She sat up and nodded.

"Yes…bath, I need a bath…" She gazed at the bandage visible above her shirt. "I can do it." She left for the bathroom. His sensei then looked at him.

"Did you guys fight?" Itachi blinked.

"How did you know?"

"I just do. Was it justified based on facts during the mission or personal feelings that could have impacted your performance?" He pursed his lips, which made Shikaku sigh. "Itachi, have you properly worked as a team?"

"Yes. We…didn't talk much outside of fights."

"You better make up, both of you. I don't want to know who's right or wrong, most times all parties involved are right and wrong. There's no way I'm having Minato saying I can't deal with kids' drama." On this note, he started to leave only to stop, his hand on the doorknob. "Should I call a woman to help Akane?"

"I'll go to the reception if needed, thank you." There was something weird in the Nara's eyes, but he left with a nod.

He ran to the vending machine to get a few snacks. Akane left the bathroom twenty minutes after he came back, and he put a piece of apple to her lips.

"What the…"

"I know you want to sleep, but you need to eat something before. You're sleep deprived now, who knows how long you're going to sleep."

"Hum…okay." He doubted she was realizing he was feeding her like a child. Once she had eaten an apple and a salmon onigiri, she slipped into bed. "'night…"

"Sleep well." She was already deep asleep, the bed sheets to her nose.

He would apologize once she was well-rested. She would be starving the second she'd wake up anyway.

Itachi set his alarm clock at noon, closed the blinds, and went to bed as well. Sleep took him quickly.

"Ita…Itachi…"

"Hum…" he replied, his mouth around my nipple. His hands on my hips, their warmth burning my skin, were firmly making me go up and down along his erection. My hands were shaking on his shoulders. Pleasure was just too much…My whole body was trembling against him.

He let go of my nipple with a wet sound, a love bite on my breast matching its twin on my other breast. He cupped my breast in his warm and rough hand, his fingers pinching and twisting my nipple deliciously. I threw my head back by a moan.

"You're…mean…" I felt him smirking against my skin as my hips moved faster, like his. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, gasping as I could feel my climax coming. Between the obscene sounds and words coming from my mouth, the sound of his skin slapping against mine, the heat, the sweat clinging to my skin and his or the smell of arousal and sex in the air…

If he were to whisper dirty words in my ear, I would come. I already was punny in his hands when he'd start touching me so…

He was tensed though. I pulled his head back and leaned my forehead against his. The frown on his face was not because of pleasure. He looked…more in pain than anything. Was…was he having issue…doing it? Was it uncomfortable or painful? It turned me off immediately to think Itachi was pleasuring me at his expenses.

"Ak…" I kissed him deeply, forcing my tongue in his mouth and against his. He returned it more slowly.

He was exhausted, I was…We didn't see each other often, so when we would, my libido would get the best of me, and him. He never complained or pushed me away when he could have. I was the one initiating sex three quarters of the times and when he was, it was usually slow.

Was I too much?

When I broke the kiss, a string of saliva between us, I started to moan louder.

"I'm close…" I whispered in his ear. I buried my face in the crook of his neck as he gasped against my skin, going faster. I matched his speed and moaned louder, arching my back.

Just a few seconds later he came in a low grunt. I felt his cum filling my insides in the silence of the room. Then I felt his calm breathing against me. I called him but there was no response. I cupped his face in my hands and moved it back to see his eyes closed, the frown still marring his face.

He had fallen asleep. I slipped my arm behind his neck, holding him close to me as my free hand ran down his arm. Even in sickness, Itachi was still a beautiful man. I had noticed the dark circles setting permanently under his eyes, the lines of his face getting deeper, the lost pounds with time spent traveling and not eating correctly, his body fighting to keep moving with the little strengths Itachi was giving it. I was cooking for an army as much as possible when he was around and I was all too happy when he would eat without complaining, asking for more sometimes. As long as he was hungry then…there was still time. His body was still fighting.

Even in sickness, he was still lean and muscular, and strong, even if his ribs were more visible than they used to be. He was spending more time sleeping when he was home too.

"Sleep tight my love," I whispered in his ear before kissing him softly on the forehead. To hell my own orgasm, it was the last thing I could care about when I had a brutal reminder that our time was limited.

I stood up, putting my panties back on as well as Itachi's shirt. Then I cleaned him up as well as I could before covering him with the sheets. I tucked him in and traced his cheek with my finger.

Uchiha Itachi really was handsome and sometimes, as I'd look at myself in the mirror, I'd wonder what he could possibly see in me.

I kissed his lips softly and went to the bathroom to clean myself of our activities after peeing. I glanced at the clock that indicated nine fifteen at night. I got the ingredients for breakfast tomorrow morning ready, so I'd just have to mix everything, then got the teapot ready.

He wouldn't tell me what his plans were. I knew there was something deeper about the Uchihas' slaughter, what his plans were for his brother or even why he was with terrorists. I wanted to help him because it had to be very lonely for him, it felt so ridiculous to welcome him back home every time knowing what was going on. I wasn't doing much to help him. I was scared to…go back into action, I wanted nothing with the shinobi world anymore, it could burn to ashes for all I cared, but if Itachi was asking me to help him, if it required me to go back into action, I'd do it without thinking.

If it wasn't for Itachi accepting me tagging along when we were seventeen after I had tried to kill Sasori, I would have let those dark thoughts in my mind win and off myself somewhere, being forgotten by everyone for good.

I filled a glass of water and took his pills, putting everything on his nightstand. Then I slipped in bed with him and looked at his face, illuminated by a thin gleam of the moonlight.

He didn't say much but would talk to me. He didn't initiate intimacy often, sex or just kisses or hugs, but wouldn't reject me. My whole life revolved around him now and I didn't want to think of what would happen once he was…

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

I didn't need him to reciprocate my actions. Whatever he was getting from coming here, I would give him to the very end. As long as he needed something from me, from being around me, then I'd be here. I was loyal to him no matter what reputation he had. Even if sometimes, when I'd lie in bed alone when he was away, I would wonder how real our relationship was. I'd wonder if it wasn't a big, fat lie in my moments of loneliness. But then he'd come back and let me kiss him and play house with him basically, I was happy. He never said he loved me like I did, but…I was happy.

As long as he needed me and he was letting me take care of him, finally able to show love to someone, I'd be happy.

I woke up, a tear streaming down my face. I sat up in bed and wiped it off. Why would I remember something like this now? Was it because I had lied to Itachi and back then, I had faked an orgasm so we would stop making love?

I looked toward his bed. He was sleeping. I looked at my alarm clock. It indicated six in the morning. I was sure when I went to bed it was eight or nine.

Oh…I was so tired I had slept for the whole day? I felt way better, but it was a long time.

I ran to the bathroom to pee. My bladder sure had been working for a day straight without release. Once done in the bathroom and dressed for the day, I brushed my hair like I could. It was long, but with no shape whatsoever right now. It was a mess of mahogany light waves, although Kiri's humidity was making it wavier. My bangs were getting too long to be called bangs as I could part them in two and put them behind my ears.

I made a clone to put my hair in a ponytail for me, happy that at least one of us could use both her arms.

I put my shoes on, took my key of the room, left a note saying I was out for a walk and bought something eat from the vending machine before leaving. It was still dark, but at least the streetlights were on.

I was deep in my thoughts as I walked. I had taken care of Itachi when he was sick, so telling him about my issues never was something I thought of. This habit followed me. As a mom, Shisui and Akiko were my priority, not the issues I could have. They were mine to deal with, there was no need to show them, or Naruto, or Sasuke, that I was struggling. There was no point to complain about real, important things.

Why would I tell anything like that to Itachi today? He had a shot to have a happy, long life, why would I ruin that?

I stopped, staring fiercely at the ground. I knew it was wrong not to tell him because he was like me, he was older than he looked, but I still wanted to take care of him. I…I wanted to protect him from getting killed again. It was a poor excuse for lying but…I didn't want him to fall back into the loneliness he was in before, I wanted him to be happy.

I guessed it settled it then. I'd protect him even if he didn't want me to. He worked from the shadows once, I could do it to. I wanted Naruto and Sasuke to have good lives, they were my mission, like actively participating in this whole thing Madara and Obito had crafted.

However, my other mission would be to make sure Itachi would live happily ever after.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have liked it, please do let me know in reviews! Thanks to Amaterasu53 for the comment!

Bye!