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

Characters age:

Akane: 18 (51)

Itachi: 18 (35)

Shisui: 21

Naruto / Sasuke: 12

Kakashi: 26

"I see." The Hokage was thoughtful. "And?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Did they seem to be alright?"

"Yes. She did seem tired, but I can only guess the kind of missions the Mizukage is giving her." He hoped she would get some rest.

The Hokage crossed his arms over his chest and was quiet for a few minutes. Itachi cleared his throat.

"Hokage-sama, may I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"She mentioned…the masked man." Minato's face became harsher. "She has not told me anything, but she vaguely explained what was going on there and to wait for you to tell me more." Minato leaned his cheek in his hand.

"Yet you are asking me." Itachi looked down. "She said the village was eager to get her, didn't she?" He nodded. "And it sounds like it is only a pretext to hide the real reason why he is interested in her." Itachi furrowed his brows. "Do you have an idea?"

"No, but even before he was interested in her. He mentioned that if it was not for Shisui, he would have taken her to the Akatsuki and she would not have resisted." Minato frowned. "However, with her father there I fail to see how he could do this." Minato crossed his hands on his desk.

"Itachi, I am going to give you a mission you cannot mention to anyone." His blue eyes met his onyx ones. "I need you to write down everything about the Akatsuki you knew, especially him. Then, we'll compare it with what it is now." Itachi nodded. "Other than this, she seemed normal, right?"

"As far as I have seen, she has not changed much."

She was more straight-to-the-point than before and was different around him, but it was the influence of Kiri and their past together. When he saw her with Shisui and other people, she was very much the same.

The Hokage sighed in relief.

"Hokage-sama?"

"It is a very delicate job I am asking her. She took it without any problem but sometimes, I do wonder about her reasons for it."

"How so?"

"They were close. She did not tell me how she reacted to the news back then, but I can only imagine how she must have felt. I guess…I'm scared that at some point, she might try to go on her own for vengeance." Itachi clenched his fists.

While he had been the one to put Sasuke on the path of vengeance, it had almost killed his brother. He would not let Akane do the same.

The marks on her arm flashed in his mind.

"She…tempered with her seal I think." Minato raised a brow.

"What do you mean?"

"She said she has made it evolve; I don't know what it does exactly but…her whole left arm is covered in markings that looked like cursed marks."

"It must be the marking of the Shinigami. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I will discuss it with Kushina." Itachi nodded and left.

Tobi's interest in Akane was strange. If she had not seen him since she had been three, then why would he try to mold her into a perfect weapon? Taking her to Kiri before broke her more than anything, so was it his plan? Had he wanted to break her, so she'd obey his orders without question or see him as his savior?

Itachi stopped in the street, glaring at the ground.

What did he want with her? She had mentioned he had been there when Shisui was recruited and directly went to her and acted friendly so what…

Akane better not try to look for an answer on her own if it meant putting herself in useless danger.

When he got home, his mother greeted him warmly. He looked at the shoes in front of the door, remembering Sasuke's were not here because Team Seven was on their first C-rank mission away from the village.

Sasuke and Naruto were good, it would be fine. Sakura…she had become the apprentice of the Fifth Hokage before, killed Sasori and he had heard of her in the Land of Fire. There was not many medic-nin with pink hair after all.

From Sasuke's depiction however, she was still far from it.

Let's hope it would go well.

"Uzu? Why are we hiding in a dark alley?" If I could melt within the wall I would.

Right.

Land of Waves. Zabuza-san. Freaking Team Seven assembled.

"See the kid with the dark hair with the pink-haired one?" He nodded. "Yeah, well he's Itachi's younger brother and used to call me 'Nee-san'."

"I see."

"He's on a team with my cousin and their sensei is Hatake Kakashi." That made him twitch and he turned his head toward me.

"Hatake Kakashi?" I nodded. "Copy Ninja Kakashi?"

"Yeah." He sighed in frustration. "Okay so…our priority is to track down Zabuza-san and ask him if he feels like helping us taking Kiri back, let's go do that an…"

"They're most probably here for something connected to him though." His purple eyes turned to me. "I'm sure it must be a delicate situation for you but keep it together." I glanced at him sternly.

"You don't have to tell me. I probably should deal with them if it comes to it anyway."

"I'll take care of spying on senpai."

Spying on the genin was easy, Kakashi was the real issue here. I followed them to the woods where they found Naruto and someone leaving. I tensed immediately. The 'someone' had long black hair and was wearing a pink summer yukata. I had no idea if they were a boy or a girl, but what I did know was that the second they walked by Sasuke, they tensed briefly. Sasuke noticed because he glanced at them suspiciously before joining his teammates.

I followed them. A summer yukata now…sure it was May, but the Land of Wave was not that warm yet. The sleeves were rolled up entirely, so clearly, they were not cold or anything. Plus, their chakra…

I widened my eyes when I had to catch senbon a second before they hit me in the face.

"I know you're here; you're not hiding your presence efficiently." I jumped down.

"That's rude." I dropped their senbon in the grass. Thinking about it, there was a kid who could use ice when Zabuza threw his coup. Maybe they were the kid?

They immediately adopted a defensive position when they took note of the Kiri crest in my forehead protector.

"Hey, I'm not here to fight!"

"Aren't you an oinin?"

"No, well…I just wanted to talk to you, my teammate is already going to Zabuza-san as we speak." They frowned.

Instead of attacking me, they tried to flee. I was quicker and they were stopped by the dome of ice around us. I saw them tense.

"So, did I get your attention?" They turned around.

"Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Akane, at your service."

"Uzumaki?" they repeated. "Like…"

"Naruto, yes." They glanced once more at my forehead protector. "It's a long story. What's your name?"

"…Haku."

"And you're from the Yuki clan like I am or just have an Ice Release?"

"From the Yuki clan." I clasped my hands together in front of me.

"We're cousins then!" The members of the Yuki I had encountered, I killed them for Yagura. "I thought I was the only one left."

"…I thought I was the only one left," they admitted, relaxing a little. I melted the ice dome around us. "Were you sent here to kill Zabuza-san?"

"Officially, get Kubikiribucho back and kill a guy named Gato. Zabuza-san's head is secondary." They tensed again. "Chill Haku, we have other plans."

"Like what?"

"Put an end to the Bloody Mist?" They widened their eyes. "It can't be that much of a shocker, is it?"

"You're saying it too casually." I shrugged. "You want to recruit Zabuza-san?"

"Pretty much. And you too I guess."

At this point, we were not sure on how to proceed yet. We needed to get to the Mizukage and break the genjutsu with an Uchiha. However, or we used force to get to him, or we kidnapped him. It required planning, but the longer we waited, the deeper the genjutsu would be and less likely we would be to free Yagura without killing him.

It would be best to be done with it by the end of the year and well, the more the merrier right? I was hoping Shisui would be able to help, but with the shit he pulled on the Isle of the Lost…had he lied as well when I saw him with the guys months ago?

"Zabuza-san is an ally we cannot dismiss, and he went against Yagura once. People would follow him." As long as he didn't steal the hat from sensei. I failed to see him keeping up with the Kages anyway. He was great, sure, but not that great.

There was a chance I was biased toward Mei-sensei, I knew that.

"Is your partner going to attack him?"

"I don't think so." They were debating for a second.

"Follow me." I sighed and relief. "And I am a boy."

"How…" He shook his head a little.

"Naruto had the same face, but he thought I was a girl." Damn, discredited by my own cousin.

I followed Haku through the woods until I saw a building suspended between the trees.

"There is a large number of people coming, but not trained as shinobi," I informed Haku casually, knowing Mangetsu had us in his sight.

"Please wait here," Haku replied immediately, rushing inside. I looked to my left when Mangetsu body-flickered there.

"So?"

"Member of the Yuki clan, he seems like the kind you can talk to. You?"

"Meh, he tried to chop my head off, it turned to water, a casual greeting between us I'd say." I snickered. "I explained everything once he dropped on one knee because he is still hurt. He told me to come back tonight."

"It looks like we might be successful."

"Yeah, we'd need to get his sword and find a way to get a head like his."

"Meh, get me a corpse I turn it into Zabuza-san's carbon copy." He nodded.

"It's scary to hear what Dai and you think you can achieve by putting your minds together."

We waited until nightfall; I smirked when I saw a short man who had to be Gato with limping thugs around him then they left. When I gave Mangetsu a nod to confirm we were in the clear, we went inside. Zabuza-san was sitting, Haku was by his side now in an outfit that looked like some anbu from the Mist had. They were expecting us.

"Uzumaki." I nodded at him. "What do you have planned?"

"Grab Yagura, break the genjutsu and then fix the village. We can't make a decision about Yagura now without knowing in what state he's going to be."

"Of course." He glanced at the floor for a second before going back to us. "And Ao confirmed it, he is under the influence of a genjutsu." We nodded. "For basically the entirety of his rule."

"Yeah. The dictatorship we all know and love to despise doesn't even have the right face on it." I couldn't agree more with Mangetsu.

"There are many people who enjoy the system for what it is," he reminded us sternly.

"Yeah, we'll go hunt them down if they don't change, that's all," I said. He nodded firmly. "Are you coming?"

"I am, we both are. If I can get another shot at Yagura, or at least kick the one behind Yagura out of Kiri, I will. I just need to finish things up here."

"Is Konoha the one who put you in that state?" Mangetsu inquired. Zabuza glared at him. "Oh, Copy Ninja, right?"

"I'll get my revenge tomorrow." I pursed my lips.

"We're also here to kill this Gato guy." Zabuza frowned. "With the hold he has on the Land of Wave and your background, I don't see you necessarily enjoying where the money you are going to get is from. From the man, I doubt he'll pay anyway, so he'll most likely try to kill you to get rid of any evidence of his wrong doings. If you get the money he promised you, do you care what happens to him?"

"Hell no, the guy's one of the worst pieces of trash I've met in my life," Zabuza-san answered. "He's the kind to underestimate people and gloat in person."

"So, he might come himself tomorrow," Mangetsu said. "To gloat as you say, and to see with his own eyes nobody gets out of there alive."

"It gives me more than enough time to raid his place," I stated firmly. "You can go to the bridge to keep an eye on how things go."

"Make sure no one from Konoha dies you mean." I frowned at him a little and he shrugged. "Alright, alright."

"Didn't you leave the Leaf?" I sighed.

"Yeah. I'm not planning on going back there, but I went to Kiri to put an end to the Bloody Mist that destroyed my family and my clan." Haku tensed at this. "There are people in Konoha I'd rather not see dead, and somehow you've got a team full of them against you." He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Do you know Hatake's weak points?" I deadpanned.

"Yes, but you wouldn't step so low, would you?" He scoffed.

"You've got a wavering loyalty." I raised a brow.

"My loyalty goes to the people who deserve it. We're too used like tools by the system and people think loyalty is due when it is earned. I ain't dirtying my hands for someone who'd let me down the second they could."

"I can't say I disagree." I smirked.

"It sounds like a plan to me then."

The next day, I waited for Gato and his men to leave the place. I had spied all night on them, even if they were gone, I knew there were still a few people inside. There were not many from what I was sensing, but you never knew.

I got inside easily and used this opportunity to feed the Claw. When I left the place with the money, there were no hidden surprises, I breathed out deeply. The markings were at the bottom of my ribcage now, it wouldn't be long until it connected to the actual seal.

I frowned and body-flickered away, checking if my Chakra Concealing Seal was still on. It was, yet I saw two Iwa shinobi appearing in the clearing I was in a second ago. Iwa? Why would they be here? They were too far from the Land of Wave to have any interest in the place. So, would it be Mangetsu and I? Or Naruto because he was Minato-san's son?

I needed to get to the bridge asap. I jumped from branch to branch and after a dozen of minutes, mist started to surround me. It was filled with chakra, so it was not natural. I sped up and slid when I was in front of the bridge.

I widened my eyes when I felt a surge of chakra from Kyuubi. I dove in the mist and stopped at Sasuke, who had been turned into a porcupine. Sakura was weeping over him.

"Kiri!" the man with her stated, taking a step back. I briefly glanced at him and ignored the fright pouring from him. Sakura looked back, her green eyes wet and blinked at me in confusion.

"I…I know…" I knelt on her other side and checked Sasuke's vitals. At first glance there was none. His chakra kept flowing in his body. It was slowed, but there and getting progressively better. Haku had used his senbon as some severe acupuncture almost and made Sasuke looked very dead to the untrained eye.

People who did not know how oinin could proceed basically.

"He's going to wake up on his own," I told Sakura, who widened her eyes in shock.

"Really?" I nodded.

"Killing someone with senbon is a lot harder than you'd think, even if it is impressive to see him like this." I stood back up. "Now…"

Huh?

Haku was moving and there was crackling in the air, like…Oh shit, Kakashi was about to Raikiri someone. Mangetsu must have felt something was going on because he decided to move as well, diving straight to them. I did as well, spotting Naruto's orange outfit even in the mist. I ran in front of him and kept him from getting any closer as I started to freeze Mangetsu the second we appeared between Haku and Kakashi, ready to tank the Raikiri.

I saw the blue light of the Raikiri, heard it and then everything became silent. I breathed out, knowing that I had managed to reduce a little bit of the electrifying factor that would have gotten Mangetsu down.

"Nee-chan?" I blinked and glanced at Naru, staring at me with wide, stunned eyes. I returned his gaze. Then he slowly frowned, anger replacing the shock and I put my hand on his mouth. He said something but I didn't understand it.

"Yeah, I know, it's been a while, you're rightfully angry but it will have to wait. We have more important than family business to discuss." He removed my hand, glaring daggers at me.

"You've abandoned your family!" That one hurt. I just went to Mangetsu, Naruto fuming and following me.

Kakashi removed his hand, the Raikiri dead and I unfroze Mangetsu, who sighed in relief. Kakashi turned his head to me and raised a brow at my sight.

"Yeah, long time no see but it will have to wait." Kakashi didn't show anything at my sight compared to Naruto. He briefly looked at me up and down, but that was it. Even if Minato-san had not kept him in the loop, he knew more than most people and knew why I had left. I glanced at Mangetsu. "So, I did my part of the mission, and it is a success, we can kill Gato as planned now."

"Wait, you're after him too?" Naruto asked me. I grabbed his shoulder and threw him in Kakashi, who caught him easily and kept him against him.

"There's a 'but' coming," Mangetsu stated, knowing me too damn well.

"There's a big 'but' coming, Iwa is here." He frowned, like Kakashi. "I saw two shinobi, jounin I'd say. I don't think they saw me, but you never know. Now, I can't say if they're here for us, or for him," I said, glancing at Naru who gulped. "In any case, there's no way Iwa has any interest in the Land of Wave, except maybe if they have connections to Gato but I doubt the Tsuchikage would bother with a small fry like him."

"I'm taking Kiri has its own issues with Iwa," Kakashi told me. I nodded, knowing Mangetsu was still crossed by the fact Iwa had almost killed him.

"Would you release him?" I asked Kakashi, pointing at Zabuza-san with my thumb. "He's good, they both are."

"But Sas…"

"Sasuke is fine," I assured Naru. He teared up immediately.

"Really?" I glanced at Haku, who averted his eyes shyly.

"You're lucky, your opponent doesn't seem like a big fan of killing." Naruto glanced at him as well, Zabuza-san sighing slightly. Kakashi's pack disappeared, and he moved his valid arm.

"Gato and his goons are coming as we're speaking," Mangetsu stated. I blinked and looked up. It was starting to snow.

Mangetsu could sense through rain and bodies of water, but he had trained enough with me to be able to do it with snow as well now. It was almost necessary in the Land of Water after all.

"Zabuza-san, stop your mist and I'll replace it with mine." I scratched my ear. "They're not trained shinobi; I can deal with them all in one attack."

"You do that Uzu, I'm taking over here."

I walked around them, used the Hiding in the Mist Jutsu and made a wall of ice between them and the goons and me. I barely raised a brow when I spotted Haku next to me.

"You're curious?" He nodded.

"I know if you're using your own mist, it is because it is filled with your chakra so you can work more efficiently." I smirked a little. "Are you going to freeze them?"

"Hum? No." Haku looked at me. "Hypothermia is better for folks like them, they can't fight against it."

"Hypothermia?"

"Have you ever tried freezing other things than water Haku?" He shook his head. "It took me a bad mission where I found myself bleeding a lot to realize I could freeze blood. The fact it is called an 'Ice Release' is kind of misleading if you're from the Yuki clan in my opinion because we don't control ice." I made the tiger seal, dropping the temperature. I heard people gasp in shock. "It's the cold we control, unlike someone who would randomly get an Ice Release. This is the slight difference between the Yuki clan and others. We control the temperature on the way down up to its original degree."

"…I don't get cold easily, I need to be exposed a lot to it." I nodded.

"Because we have an affinity for water it is easier to go for that element. I don't know much about the Yuki clan, but those who felt more comfortable with their wind affinity tended to focus on the temperature aspect of things and not so much about freezing." I knew sensei had told me this about my grandfather. "Anyway." I summoned Nuibari and twirled in my hand a little bit.

"Can I?" I handed Haku Nuibari. He accepted it. If he had something to take on Gato, why not?

The man was pathetic in all honesty. Sinking his teeth in the Land of Wave, which was already not very rich only indicated his power was mild. Everyone around him were on the ground, trying to warm themselves up. I ran between them and touched them all, freezing them to death on the spot. I went back to Haku quickly, who sported a hateful expression as he was looking at Gato.

"Haku, please don't make it too long."

"Of course, my apologies." He beheaded Gato swiftly. I used ice to protect ourselves from the blood spurting everywhere.

"Thanks, I will take this," I said, sealing his head in a scroll. I took another one, Kiri's symbol on it and opened it, putting some of my blood on it.

It was a summoning contract with common raven common to all Kiri anbu to get rid of corpses, our own or our victims. Oinin used them a lot more than regular anbus, but we all had them.

I know, it was ironic knowing Itachi loved these birds and now I could summon a flock of them to eat corpses.

When it was done, I melted the wall of ice and walked around Naru, who was waiting right behind it. I stopped a few meters from him and glanced at him above my shoulder. He was frowning at the ground.

"Naruto, what are you waiting for?" He looked up, Haku now next to me as well. I gestured him to come. "Come on, follow me." He sniffed, there was something akin to relief in his eyes almost and he did.

Kakashi, Mangetsu and Zabuza were talking among themselves.

"We came to an agreement," Mangetsu stated. "Kiri and Konoha don't have a good relationship with Iwa, so we're going to temporarily team up to check how many Iwa shinobi are in the country exactly. If we can go our own way without fighting, it's great. If not…well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend for a short amount of time." I nodded.

"Roger."

"For now, I am going to explain everything to Tazuna-san, Sasuke and Sakura," Kakashi told us. "This mission has already escalated to an A-rank, why not keep it going after all." Kakashi was still a sarcastic little bi…

Huh, from the glare directed at me, he knew what I was thinking. I looked away.

"Uzu." I raised a brow at Mangetsu, Kakashi walking away. He showed me Naru standing nervously next to me with a movement of the head. "I'll deal with senpai's and Haku's wounds with my medical kit, you do you." Message received.

"Naruto." He blinked his big, sky-blue eyes to me. "Come on." I walked from them but remained far from Kakashi and his genin. "So…" I twirled on the side to dodge his punch. "Hey!"

"You left! You didn't say goodbye and you…Sasuke and I were taken dattebayo!" Right, I had received a note explaining this when we were under Tsunade-san's care with Shisui.

"I know, I'm sorry I couldn't help you out, I was…busy elsewhere."

"With Shisui-nii-chan, I know that!" He wiped his nose. "What…what happened?" I sighed deeply and crouched in front of him. "Sasuke said that…that it was because of his clan you had to leave."

"…I'm not free to tell you that, but I chose to leave Naru." Tears appeared in his eyes at the nickname. "Kiri has a law, anyone born there is their property first and foremost and sadly, Konoha was in the wrong, so I left. There's nothing more to it. It…" He hugged me tightly, sobbing quietly in my shoulder. I hugged him back and got onto my knees instead. "Sorry I didn't say goodbye."

"I…I…" He sniffed and calmed himself down. He moved away a little, wiping his face. "I get it Nee-chan. I'm a shinobi, I know you…you don't always have good choices." I smiled faintly and cupped his cheek.

"You're not a kid anymore," I whispered more to myself than him. He adjusted his forehead protector with a toothy grin. "Naru, can I ask you something?"

"Huh?" I put my hands on each side of my mouth.

"Keep Sasuke from throwing anything at me?" He blinked and smirked.

"Nope." I stood back up with a sigh.

"Damnit." I followed Naruto to his team. Sasuke looked at me up and down as Sakura was removing the senbon. I raised my hand and he looked away with a scowl.

Damn, he was moody as a teen.

"Do you have everything settled there?" Kakashi glanced at the man, who cleared his throat.

"Is Gato really dead?" I blinked and started to rummage through my back pouch.

"I can show you his head if you wish." He moved his hands in front of him frantically.

"No, I'm fine!" He glanced at Kakashi. "I am not comfortable hosting more people in my home though." I opened my mouth.

"There are people coming." A few seconds later, yells could be heard.

"Inari!?" the man screeched. I squinted and saw a kid with a onesie at the front of the armed civilians.

"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, go deal with them." Naruto looked up at me.

"I'm not leaving for now," I said. He nodded, pointed at his eyes, then me and left. As they left, Sasuke glanced at me above his shoulders, narrowed his eyes and did the same. "Come on…"

"You can't blame them Akane," Kakashi commented, enjoying this. I rolled my eyes.

"I don't think it would be wise for us to be in the village to be honest. Depending on why they're here, we would make one big target. Is there anywhere close where we would be able to go?"

"There are onsens an hour-walk east from the village." I nodded.

"Thank you." I glanced at Kakashi. "You know where to find us."

"I'll find you tonight at best, tomorrow morning at worst."

We split up. When we were at the onsens, well the ryokan, I fell on the futon while Mangetsu sat down on his quietly.

"You okay there?"

"Hum? Yeah I'm good." I sighed a little. "I'm just glad we didn't have to fight them."

"I never would have thought Iwa would do something good for us." I chuckled a little. "We're not out of the trouble yet." I leaned on my forearms.

"I know, I know…"

The one thing I couldn't stop thinking about was Sasuke's obvious resentment toward me. I couldn't blame him, at all, but it still hurt and mending our relationship could not be my priority right now.

I hoped he would understand a little bit by working together.

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

Bye!