Chapter 11

Chapter 11

You're received...: A CranBo Nutrient Bar! - Recovers 35Hp on usage.

The rolling table...was a fucking joke.

Akari hadn't forgotten about it, she just didn't deign to think the trash she got was worth even thinking about. Sure, it could be used in some fashion, but seriously...almost all the stuff she got was either one use, or absurdly specific. A crappy nutrient bar that gave her 0.5% of her health back. A set of glasses with funky lenses which she couldn't see out of properly. A scuffed-up motorcycle helmet. The only item she received that was even vaguely useful was called "The Returning Pebble." A pebble, about as big as her thumb, which would return to her inventory after hitting a few surfaces and settling.

Of course, she could easily just grab a few pebbles from the floor and toss those, but it still had a vague kind of usefulness to it. As she raised her hand to flip her inventory, or more specifically the roulette symbol that was her Rolling Table item, off, a knock at her door had her quickly putting her hand back down and clearing her throat. "Yeah?"

Out of the people she expected to suddenly come into her apartment, Sarutobi Hiruzen was most certainly not one of them. To be frank with herself, she thought it was Naruto coming to ask her some inane question, like 'How much ramen can I have to eat tonight?' or some such nonsense. "H-hokage-sama. Uhh, welcome, I guess. Please, come sit down." She stood and waved a hand at her chair, smiling somewhat awkwardly at the man as he made his way to the chair, only sitting when he gestured for her to do so.

"Please, sit. How has life been treating you Akari-chan? I must confess I meant to make some time to speak with you after our last...discussion, but my duties forced my hand. Picking up the hat after hoping to leave it behind puts a tremendous weight upon my head." Akari gave the man a more honest, if saddened smile.

"Don't worry, I get it. I...uh, I guess you were hoping to never be Hokage again after all, so to have to suddenly start working again..." Blowing air from her lips, Akari waved at her wall. "You mind if I turn my seals on? I'm guessing that's why you're here, something private? After all, if you wanted to just catch up you could find me in an Akimichi restaurant, or if 'lil Naruto was demanding it we'd be at Ichiraku." The old man's eyes brightened at the mention of Naruto, though his lips remained firm.

"Sharp as ever I see. Yes, if you could please activate your privacy seals, that'd be lovely. I don't doubt that your home is protected, but even the keenest defences have holes." With a nod, Akari reached her hand to a seemingly blank piece of her sofa, flowing her chakra into the ink hidden there and activating the seals inscribed all across the walls of her apartment.

It was a nightmare to draw out, since she had to go up the walls and across the ceiling to make sure the room was completely covered, but it was excellent for creating true privacy. To the Byakugan and Sharingan, the room will have become a black hole, and no sound would escape either. For all intents and purposes, the small area had vanished. "So, what is it you need Hokage-sama?"

Steeping his fingers together, Hiruzen placed his elbows on his knees, looking directly into Akari's onyx eyes. "Akari-ch...no, Akari-san, I need your assistance with a rather...delicate situation involving the Uchiha Clan and their interests." Akari's eyebrows rose, and she gestured with a hand for him to go on. "Before I continue, I must inform you that the information we speak of within this room is an S-rank secret. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the consequences to sharing this information?" Akari shook her head.

S-rank secrets were the tippy-top of secrets, the Village-breaking, Status-quo-shattering sort. Naruto's heritage was, by comparison, only an A-rank. Her Jinchuriki status, of not spread around as such, would likely have been S-rank. because she was skilled enough to look after herself, she didn't need it to be kept secret, even if it would have made her life a heck of a lot easier. More than once during missions enemy Shinobi tried to capture her or mess with her seal. "Just to clarify, if I hear this mission, can I still deny it?"

Sarutobi smiled then. "Certainly. I would not force you to accept a mission without telling you about it. The mission is S-ranked as well, with the appropriate payment already set aside. Now then, knowing this, are you still willing to at least hear me out? I won't lie, this is a rather...delicate situation, and has the potential to generate some rather devastating repercussions."

Akari took a moment before she shrugged and nodded. "Sure."

"Then, let me start at the beginning. You are undoubtedly aware of the past of our village, the hatred in the relations between Senju and Uchiha being set aside to form Konohagakure as we know it, by Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara?" Akari nodded, it was part of the basics, something original Akari learnt before new Akari took over. "Well, the Uchiha weren't particularly liked nor trusted by his younger brother, the Nidaime, Senju Tobirama. When he came into power, he talked the Uchiha into becoming what you would know as the Konoha Military Police Force."

Taking a deep breath, Hiruzen slouched in his chair slightly. "Unfortunately, what he did only served to push your clansmen further into a corner. Think about this; How many Uchiha do you see outside of the compound who aren't on official business?" Opening her mouth, Akari was about to retort with several, only to find that outside of her mother coming over to visit her, or her brother working in the Academy and walking there and back, she couldn't think of any Uchiha who had jobs outside of the compound.

"Wait, but what about Shinobi? I can't be the only Uchiha Shinobi...right?" She frowned as she muttered, mostly to herself but loud enough for Hiruzen's ears to catch.

Sighing, Hiruzen shook his head. "You aren't the only one Akari-san. For example, Uchiha's Fugaku, Itachi, Shisui, and Mikoto are all Shinobi. Though Fugaku-san, as you likely know, is far too busy as the head of your clan to be active, Mikoto-san has taken herself from the active rosters on the grounds of maternity care for her sons, one of whom is Itachi, who just became a Genin." Taking his pipe out, he made to fill it with tobacco, but Akari's frown dissuaded him. He instead settled for simply rolling it around in his hand, a frown on his lips.

"This leaves us with a problem. Your clansmen feel as though they've been being pressed into a corner ever since Madara betrayed the village, made worse by the suspicion surrounding their inactivity during the Kyuubi attack. This, coupled with the diminishing number of active Shinobi within their ranks, has led them to decide that more drastic measures are necessary. They believe they've kept it a secret, but somebody loyal to me has kept me informed...they plan to initiate a coup and take power by force."

Exhaling harshly, Akari leaned back in her chair, ignoring the squeak of springs as she observed the God of Shinobi seemingly deflate before her eyes. A coup. Her clan thought a coup would solve all their problems. "You're...completely serious. My clan actually thinks a coup will save them at this point?" When Hiruzen gave her a firm nod, she grit her teeth. "Idiots." She growled under her breath. "Fucking..idiots. They have what...maybe 12 active Sharingan users? And out of those, maybe 2 with a Mangekyo? Not including me of course. And they think they'd be able to keep the Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Aburame, Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka and all the other clans in line?"

"Well, I don't know their exact plans. For them to believe this Coup possible leads me to believe either they have a hidden ability or weapon which would grant this, or they are truly desperate." Putting his pipe to his lips, he puffed the empty tube a few times, taking strength from the familiar action. "This is why I would like-"

"What could I honestly do?" Akari interrupted the Hokage bluntly. "If I came back into the clan now asking about anything even remotely close to what they are planning, they'd know something is up and run for cover." Leaning back, Akari lifted an arm over the back of her chair, letting Monty slide up her arm and around her neck. "And subterfuge is not something I'm particularly good at. Want me to heal a hundred injured Shinobi? Sure. Kill a squad of missing-nin? Let me at em. But infiltrating a clan who have Dojutsu strong enough to tell when someone is lying, just by reading their Chakra?" Akari shook her head. "Look, Hokage-sama, the way I see it is that...while I'm flattered you think I can help...I just don't see any way I can actually be helpful here."

Chuckling softly, Hiruzen leaned forwards. "Well, you may just be looking at it from the wrong angle."

"Hideyoshi Depot."

Muttering to herself, Akari folded her arms as she observed the map she received from the Mission office, flicking her gaze up to the Chunin sat behind his desk. A genin was sorting files behind him and casting furtive glances towards Akari. "That's right Akari-san. The client requires a saboteur to destroy this depot, which has been inhabited by bandits, to prevent others from inhabiting it. Typically an ANBU Saboteur would handle this, but there are none available right now."

Humming, she picked the piece of paper up and rolled it, tossing it into her pouch. "Cool. So what, break down the walls, level the place, make it worthless?" The Chunin nodded, reaching under his desk to place a satchel atop his desk. "What's that for?" The Chunin gave her a blank look, as though she asked a stupid question.

"Explosive tags. Y'know, to level the place?" He said with a sarcastic lilt to his voice. Smirking, Akari cocked her hip, placing her hand atop her side.

"I don't think I'll be needing that. Honestly, has the Battle of Akaya Plains been forgotten already?" The Chunin blanched as she mentioned the battle she was renowned for, realizing who she was before muttering something under his breath as he took the satchel of explosives back. Akari looked like an Uchiha, but many people seemed more than happy to dismiss her, even ignoring the flak vest she wore which signified she was at minimum a Tokubetsu Jonin, though it was the same vest as fully-fledged Jonin wore.

"Right, well, I'm sure the scroll has all the necessary information, so unless there's anything else...?" The Chunin waved her off, and she strolled from the building with a grin, her arm reaching up to pet the head of Monty as she slipped up from her place wrapped around Akari's neck, hiding underneath her scarf.

Walking up the side of a nearby building, Akari took a moment to look over Konoha, the rising sun appearing over the forests and walls of the massive village and illuminating the buildings, where numerous Shinobi and civilians made their business wandering about. On the rooftops, several Shinobi were visible simply hopping around, travelling from place to place, but deftly avoiding the foot-traffic on the ground. Idly, Akari opened her menu, quickly selecting quests and skimming the mission.

Quest received.

Depot Duty

Objective:

Destroy Hideyoshi Depot.

Reward: 15,000 experience.

Hidden Objective:

?

With a smile she dove over the side of the building, leaping to the next building with a slight boost of chakra and landing with a skid, immediately kicking off from the roof and sprinting across the ground, bounding across another gap smoothly. She repeated this process many times, waving a few times to Shinobi she passed by on her way to her apartment.

At least once she leapt over a gap to spot the amusing visage of a civilian seeing her go flying across the gap, usually dropping their jaw when they realized what they'd just seen. While a few Shinobi used the rooftops to traverse Konoha, many preferred to simply travel on the ground. It was somewhat frowned upon to constantly use the rooftops to travel since there was always the chance you'd put your foot through a weakened part of the structure, which wouldn't be good.

This meant that, while rare, there was still a moderate population of civilians who were in Konoha, usually on business of some kind, and never saw a Shinobi roof-hopping or walking up walls. Rare, but they did exist. It was always a great laugh to walk up a wall in front of one of them, especially the children. It was absolutely awesome having a bunch of kids swarming around chirping about how awesome being a ninja was and how they wanted to learn how to do it.

Akari was confident enough in her abilities to travel near-constantly, only walking in the streets in certain situations like spending time with Naruto, or her mother and brother. It wasn't very conducive to a conversation when running across rooftops, nor very polite. Not that she particularly cared about being polite to people, but there was a certain level of common courtesy that even she was willing to give.

With nary a warning, Akari slipped into her apartment through the window in her kitchen, startling Naruto from his place on the floor of the living room as he panicked and hurled his toy kunai in her vague direction. "Oh, I've been hit! Woe is me!" Akari announced as her fingers snapped out around the toy, a pained grimace coming to her face easily. With an incoherent cheer, Naruto charged over to wrap his arms around her thigh, not quite being tall enough to reach her waist comfortably. "Hey there cub, how you been?" She ruffled the blonde's hair as he let go of her leg to reach up at her.

Blowing out a put-upon sigh, Akari obliged his silent request, leaning down to settle her hands under his armpits and lift him up, jumping him in her hands so he could sit on her arm. "Welcome home Kaa-san." He murmured, wrapping his stubby arms around Akari's neck and burying his face in her neck. Grimacing when he couldn't see it, she bit her lip, trying to come up with a way to let him down gently.

Stopping the grabby hand trying to reach for one of her seals, she rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand, sighing through her teeth. "Good to be back. Now...I know I promised we'd go out today, but I got called in...again...so I'm gonna be gone for a while again." She winced at the betrayed look that came across Naruto's face, quickly pressing his head up under her chin. "I'm sorry cub, but I can't just say no when they tell me only I can do the mission."

"I...it's fine Kaa-san." He said between sobs, dampening Akari's neck with his tears.

"Cub, we both know it isn't fine." Shifting through the apartment, Akari slumped down onto a chair, Naruto still in her arms. "I hate this as much as you do. But hey, if it makes them happy to know the big scary fox isn't threatening them, that's up to them." She tousled his hair for good measure, a little smile on her lips. She'd told Naruto about her tenant not long ago, not wanting to keep anything secret that she didn't have to. The boy then immediately claimed that he wanted to meet the fox for himself because, in his own words, 'Foxes are adorable.' and he wanted to pet one.

Kurama's growl was audible loudly in her head during that day, making Akari burst out laughing. She did then have to console Naruto when he thought she was laughing at what he wanted, but it was worth it. With searching hands, Naruto reached for her hand, pulling it towards himself and running his fingers along the faint scarring on her wrist. It was quite odd how fixated he got when he saw the scar, never being repulsed by it, even when she relented and told him exactly how she got it.

If anything, it made him even more in awe of her.

"Urk-"

The bandit in the guard tower gave a strangled sound as the Senbon pierced his vocal cord, and he dropped forwards off the tower, straight over the stone wall of the compound into Akari's waiting arms. Bending her knees as the rapidly-cooling cadaver hit her arms, she brought the body down near-silently, placing it on the floor and flickering her gaze around. Satisfied that nobody would find the corpse before it was too late, Akari crept up the side of the wall, slipping into the depot and observing the camp from her raised position on the wall, her feet planted firmly on the barbed wire ringing the wall-top.

There were several warehouses within the depot, stone paths networking between them. Barracks were set up between them, with the occasional man entering or leaving the buildings. It was clear that the men were not expecting to be attacked, many stood around with no weaponry on their persons, simply sucking on cigarettes, drinking alcohol and generally being...inept was the best way to describe them.

With a grumble to herself, Akari slid down the stone wall after extricating herself from the wire, landing on the dirt ground with nary a sound and flitting across the small gap between herself and the nearest warehouse. She snuck along the darkened wall, grateful that the lights weren't covering that side of the warehouse. Weirdly enough, the entire depot seemed quite poorly designed from a defensive stand-point.

The towers weren't lit up, meaning the guards couldn't see each other through the darkness. They were also so separated that hearing something happen was rather unlikely. While the outside area was well-lit with floodlights, the interior of the depot was a joke. The main lighting was in the middle of the depot, running along the pathways and main entrances to the warehouses, whereas the backsides of the buildings were left dark, a perfect place for somebody to hide.

Shaking her head at the ineptitude, Akari reached a side-door and gently rapped her knuckles on it twice, her ears straining to hear anybody close to the door. She knocked again on the door, firmly enough that anybody relatively near the door would hear it, but after nobody came to investigate, Akari twisted the doorknob and opened it, wincing slightly at the brightness of the room.

"This is just insulting. Honestly, you'd think humans would have learnt better than this." Kurama helpfully chimed in, making Akari growl at his suddenness.

"Seriously Kurama?" She hissed, careful to keep her voice neutral. Ever since Akari figured out that she could let him speak within her mind, he took a rather devious joy in piping up at inopportune moments to spook the girl. "The worst part is, if I agree with you, I'm insulting my own village, but if I don't, I look like an idiot. Whatever, whoever designed this place was, quite frankly, a retard." Kurama laughed at her statement, but Akari tuned him out, hearing footsteps within the warehouse and essentially 'muting' Kurama in her mind.

Fingering another Senbon, Akari retreated from the door a few paces and crouched down in the darkness. There wasn't any real cover to hide behind, but Akari was confident in her abilities that if someone with a light did exit the building, she could kill them before they even noticed her. Slipping the diminutive metal rod from the holster on her thigh, she planted it against her palm, then knelt down, prepared to wait patiently, breathing soft and near-silent.

A dozen more seconds passed before a man exited the door, looking around curiously before nudging the door closed behind himself, then tugging on the handle and humming to himself thoughtfully. With a grin, Akari loosed her Senbon, stabbing the metal straight through the pterion section of his skull, nice and vulnerable, piercing directly into his brain which killed him near-instantly. Akari Shunshin'd to his position and let him down slowly, generating only the bare minimum of noise with her kill. Planting her fingers on the end of her Senbon, she tugged the metal from the bandit's head with a grimace, then froze.

He had a Hitai-ate. More specifically, an Iwagakure Hitai-ate. What was more alarming was it wasn't scratched-through. That meant two things. Either the man was a Missing-nin and just hadn't scratched his Hitai-ate to trick people, or...he was still an active Shinobi. "Shiba?" Someone called a name, presumably the name of the dead man. Akari quickly formed the hand-seal for the Hiding Like a Mole technique which dropped the corpse into the ground, then dropping the seal and trapping the body underneath the dirt.

Slipping back into the darkness, Akari took a moment to re-assess the situation. According to the mission scroll, the depot was meant to be inhabited by a bunch of bandits. The depot was within Taki no Kuni borders, close to both the Hi no Kuni, Tsuchi no Kuni and Ame no Kuni borders. If Hidden Rain Shinobi suddenly appeared, Akari was going to flip her lid.

With a silent growl, she drew her still-bloodied Senbon and stalked towards the closed door, kicking it harshly to send it flying deep into the room and striking someone, the impact causing an audible cracking sound to emit, followed by a pained scream. Akari ignored this, her eyes flickering about as she saw three other men with Hitai-ate, all Iwa Shinobi.

What was odd was that there were several men standing around who bore no Hitai-ate. Instead, they had red cloths tied around their left forearms, presumably an identifying mark of some kind. "What the-!" One of them yelled, but Akari was already in motion, sprinting along the warehouse wall and going sideways up the wall, throwing the Senbon in her hand at the one who yelled before transitioning to the ceiling and pressing her hands together, quickly forming the half-dozen seals and inhaling.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" She yelled, breathing out a stream of fire across the warehouse, mostly aimed at the Shinobi, but some flame was spared for the presumed bandits as well. The one she struck with a Senbon was too distracted by the Senbon in his throat to avoid the attack, but the other two were fast enough to evade the flames, leaving their friend to burn alive. The presumed-bandits were incinerated before they could do anything, cutting the number of enemies down to two. "Tch."

Cutting the flow of Chakra to her lungs, Akari let her flame die, simultaneously drawing her Bowie knives out from their seals and dropping from the ceiling to avoid the retaliatory Earth Bullets which flew at her old position, flipping in midair to end up firmly on her feet. Channelling Chakra to her legs, Akari bolted forwards, reaching one of her opponents in a mere second and embedding one of her daggers straight through his eye. She left the blade there as she parried the enraged Kunai strike from her next opponent, swiping a hand across her leg then flicking it out, releasing the Senbon in a low arc at the Iwa-nin's torso as she disengaged. His flak vest prevented several from piercing his skin, but the angle was low enough to allow more than a few to pierce his legs, jamming into the meat of his thighs to hamper his movement.

A cocky grin on her lips, Akari kicked her foot to the side where the corpse lay with her blade, planting her foot underneath the hand-guard and kicking the weapon up into her grasp, flicking it once to clean it of some of the blood. A metal scraping sound came from her left, and Akari flickered her eyes across to see a blonde genin enter the warehouse. Dropping her Bowie knife for her seal to catch, Akari swiped another few Senbon and drew her arm back to throw. She was prevented from doing so when the Nin she was fighting before charged forwards, ignoring the way the Senbon in his legs tore apart his musculature.

Sighing, Akari twitched her arm, throwing the Senbon at the idiot man before leaning down and thundering forwards under the strike of the Kunai which blocked her Senbon, stabbing her knife upwards and impaling the man straight through the wrist, forcing him backwards and tripping him with a well-placed ankle behind his foot. His fall drew the knife back out from his arm, which Akari immediately used to slit his throat, blocking his retaliatory punch with her forearm guard. Ignoring the blood which now coated her front, Akari flicked her knife once as she stood and prepared to charge at the Genin. When she laid eyes on him, however, she reconsidered.

He wasn't looking at her with anger, or hatred, or anything like that for killing what was presumably part of his squad. No, he was looking at her with...hope? "Uhh, kid?" Akari asked, confused. The blonde looked between her and the dead Iwa-nin, blinking a few times before walking forwards. Akari fingered her Bowie knife and observed as he approached, her eyes on his hands. Or rather, the mouths on his hands. "Okay, mouths on your palms, I can deal with palm-mouths." She said, flipping her knife over before holding it in a reverse-grip and preparing to charge him.

The boy stopped when she lowered her torso, his eyes widening. "Uhh, I don't want to fight, un!" Raising an eyebrow, Akari flipped her knife in her hand, gesturing for him to continue. "I just want to get away from Iwa, they don't appreciate my art." Making a non-committal noise, Akari re-sealed her blade, giving him a questioning look. She watched as the kid dug a hand into the pouch on his back, the mouth on his hand chewing something a few times before spitting out a white spider onto his other hand. He then tossed the spider to the side, further into the room. "Uhh, you may want to cover your ears, un." Akari quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over.

"What exactly am I doing that for?" The kid just pointed in the direction of the clay sculpture he just tossed. A few more seconds passed before an explosion, about the size of a standard explosive tag, rocked the building. "Oh holy shit that's cool." She admitted unabashedly, and the kid grinned at her. "Wait, woah woah woah, can those move autonomously as well?" The kid gave her a confused look. "On their own." She clarified.

"Oh yeah, un! My spiders can move on their own, watch." The blonde then formed another spider, making it dance over his hand. Humming, Akari slid the Senbon out of the corpses she'd stuck them into, sliding them back into her holster and replacing the few that were damaged or missing using her seals. "Uhh, so I'm Deidara." He offered, to which Akari smirked at him, activating her Mangekyo casually and startling the boy.

"Akari. Though, you might know me better as the Crimson Medic."

"You know, when you were sent on this mission Akari-chan, you weren't meant to bring back the protege of the Third Tsuchikage."

Blinking owlishly, Akari looked between the Hokage and Deidara in disbelief. "Uhh, what?" Deidara definitely didn't mention THAT little tidbit at any point during their walk back to Konoha.

Deidara rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I didn't want you to decide I was too bothersome." He then frowned. "And considering how you took down that depot...I didn't want to get on your bad side, un." Chuckling softly, the Hokage drew their attention back to him.

"Well, if you wouldn't mind waiting outside my boy, Akari here can give her report and we'll...figure out what to do with you I suppose." He gave the kid a genial smile and waved him out of the room. Deidara gave a wary look at Akari, to she tried to reassure him with a smile, though he still looked pretty nervous about his future, and he left with a glance back over his shoulder. As soon as the doors closed, Akari let a frown come across her lips when she felt the seals in the office activate.

"The Tsuchikage's protege? Please tell me you're joking." Hiruzen merely shook his head. "Fuck." Akari swore under her breath, twisting her head to look back at the closed doors. "Okay. No, this is fine. What I really want to know is why the hell someone like him was out in a random commandeered supply depot. I mean, who gave the order for that mission? Because it feels like they were trying to get Konoha shinobi killed." Hiruzen puffed his pipe a few times.

Standing from his chair, the old Hokage turned to face Konoha, sighing heavily. "Unfortunately Akari-chan, the one who placed the request is believed to be missing or dead." Rubbing his face with one hand, he wandered closer to the window. "We know that whoever ordered this request must have sources within the upper echelons of our command structure, as they knew exactly when our ANBU Saboteurs were out of the village. What's worse is that this specific request would have only been takeable by an Uchiha."

Taking a faltering step backwards, Akari narrowed her eyes. "You mean to tell me that the only available Shinobi for this specific mission were the very few Uchiha currently on active duty?" Hiruzen gave a firm nod of his head. "Great. Just fucking great. So what, I was meant to die out there?"

"Presumably so I'm afraid. I know not who ordered this, but it is clear they are attempting to tie up any potential loose ends involving the Uchiha clan. This could be...extremely detrimental for your clan if this continues, which is why I'm assigning you an extra objective to your mission. If another mission of this nature comes up, I'll be assigning you to it as a precaution. I'm sure you can handle yourself just fine, so as long as you are with another Shinobi of Konoha, you should-" Akari interrupted the Hokage with a raised hand.

"Hokage-sama, are you forgetting something important?" The man raised an eyebrow. "If this mystery plotter has their hands in the upper levels of our command structure, then surely...we can't even trust our own Shinobi..." Akari trailed off. "...Fuck." Akari curled a fist up. "That's...okay, Hokage-sama, I don't really want to say this, but it'd probably be a good idea to make sure if any Uchiha get sent out of the village, I get sent with them. Considering how the person behind this seems to want to target Uchiha, the safest people to send me on mission with are going to be said Uchiha..."

Palming her chin, Akari whined slightly in her throat. "Ugh, but then those Uchiha going to get suspicious of why exactly I'm constantly monitoring any Uchiha that leave the village, making them even more suspicious of the village for 'spying on them'. This whole situation is just fucked." Hiruzen merely smirked at her.

"Indeed. This is a rather challenging conundrum. I believe, for now, our best bet is to stay our course, keep you within Konoha as much as possible, and continue to present you to the Uchiha until such a time as they believe your power is worth the risk of exposure. Now, I am going to offer you a piece of rather important information. One of the Uchiha, the one called Shisui of the Body Flicker, has a Mangekyo just like you. His, however, is far more insidious if in the wrong hands." Hiruzen stepped back to his desk and opened a drawer, revealing a scroll and unrolling it across his table, brushing aside a few sheafs of paper.

Leaning over, Akari read the title atop the scroll. "Kotoamatsukami...hmm." Skimming the rest of the scroll quickly, Akari exhaled sharply when she finished. "Wow, that's pretty...scary actually." Chuckling softly, Hiruzen nodded.

"I agree. If this ability became commonly known...I dread to imagine what sort of bounty would be placed atop Shisui-san's head." Tapping his chin with his pipe, Hiruzen made a thoughtful noise. "Ahh, that reminds me, you have an updated bingo book page now." Rolling her eyes, Akari rolled the scroll on the table up and placed it to the side.

"Well, if it isn't a flee-on-sight order, then it really doesn't matter much to me. Increasing my bounty isn't really gonna change much either." Shrugging, Akari sat down on the chair beside the Hokage's desk. "So, any idea what's going on at Konoha General? I keep meaning to pop my head in and say hello to a few of them, but I keep getting side-tracked. I mean, I'm sure they don't mind, especially with my brother regularly taking Golan seals there, but still."

Smiling, Hiruzen gladly informed Akari of what she missed, though cut the explanation short when his secretary reminded him of the blonde currently sat outside his office. "Right, we should probably, ahh, send him in." Smirking, Akari body-flickered over to the door and opened it, patting Deidara's shoulder which startled the boy, before flickering back to her seat. "And close the door behind you please my boy." The Hokage called when Deidara stepped back into the room.

"...Right."

Betcha none of you saw that coming.

Deidara and Akari meeting. Sure, it's gonna screw with canon a little, but I couldn't help myself. Also Merry Christmas! I decided a few days...a week...oh, fine, two weeks ago, that I wanted to have some chapters ready to go for a big Christmas Special! Originally I wanted to do, in no particular order other than descending alphabetically: War Dog, The Whisperer, The Eternal Game, The Crimson Dovah, Akari Nanashi, Imperial Problems - Imperial Solutions, Feathered Rose and Empty Lights.

However, it's likely I'll get maybe three of those finished since its 2:30am on the 25th now. So I have 14 and a half hours until I plan to upload. And I usually go to sleep at like 4am, so in reality, like 5/6 hours. Hoo boy!

(Also, I completely forgot to add the status to this chapter. Fixed that now obviously, but that was a bit of a whoops moment.)

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 48

Age: 15

Experience: 1377/48000

To Next Level: 46623

Title: Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.

Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.

Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.

Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.

Strength - 55

Vitality - 40

Endurance - 30

Intelligence - 30

Agility - 50

Wisdom - 30

Luck - 30

Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary