Chapter 21

Please, I do honestly like and respond to constructive criticism. One of my favourite reviews for any of my stories was one written by Azaira back in Chapter 9...the original chapter 9 that is, where Orochimaru got Kabuto to trick and capture Akari, then tortured her. Thanks to that criticism, the chapter was changed massively to what it is now, a FAR better version. If Aza never left that review, this story would be vastly different, and in my own humble opinion, inferior.

So if there's something you don't like, or think doesn't fit, tell me!

Anyway, hope you enjoy boos!

Chapter 21

'Kara' popped her arms out above herself, unintentionally giving a show to those on the streets below her as she stretched.

One of the Kumo-nin snorted then nudged his partner, pointing up to the blonde woman when he looked at him questioningly. "Well, would you look at that, dinner and a show." His partner spoke mockingly, taking another bite of his food. Of course, using the layer of simple ogling, the man who was nudged was actually analyzing the woman, wary of any tricks. There was a slight bulge under her left sleeve in the vague shape of a Kunai, a few Senbon visibly wrapped around her other arm, and a storage pouch on her hip.

After all, you didn't get to become the Head Ninja of Kumo by luck. But, even to his trained eyes, or rather, 'eye', the Chunin appeared to simply be a rather stupid and weak Kunoichi sent to keep an eye on the Kumo delegation. Slipping an audio-distorting seal onto the underside of the table between he and his partner, he conversed with them. "It would appear our intelligence was correct, Konoha's stronger Shinobi are out of the village, leaving only nin like...that to guard."

Looking back up at the woman, the experienced Shinobi couldn't help but grimace. She was literally sitting down and eating a stick of Dango she'd procured from somewhere, spending more of her time looking at the rest of the village than on her assigned task. It rankled him so much that for a moment he was tempted to Shunshin up to her and slap some sense into her, but that would make his mission unnecessarily harder. He instead made a mental note that if he got the chance during his exfiltration, he would kill her as well, if only to rid the world of a completely idiotic nin.

She might be from an enemy village, but there was a line that the Kumo Head Ninja wouldn't allow anyone to cross in his presence. That woman had tap-danced straight over that line. As such, killing her would ease his mind of the stupidity he was being forced to witness as she dangled her legs off the roof of the building, blatantly stared at the assembled Shinobi for a few moments then her gaze drifted off again, a light appearing in her eyes as she scampered to a standing position and hopped a few buildings down to look across the streets.

He was briefly curious as to what would make her forget her mission like that, but eventually decided to ignore it. For all he knew, she was distracted from her mission by a goat wandering around town, or someone wearing a funny hat. She definitely didn't seem anything like some of the Shinobi Konoha had brought out over the years like Kakashi of the Sharingan, Minato of the Yellow Flash, or the current reigning Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, better known as The Professor.

Compared to those legends, that woman was...a disaster.

"Damn, thought I saw Naruto with a girl."

Slumping back down on the roof, Akari cracked a finger, her eyes drifting around lazily. This mission was incredibly boring, nothing like when she was assigned to guard Kushina. For one, the pair of Kumo shinobi she was assigned to watch were so boring, they weren't doing anything noteworthy. Two, she wasn't allowed to talk to them, or anyone really, a far cry from the antic-filled conversations she could have with Kushina, from anything, Fuinjutsu to how memory foam worked.

The one she was told was the Head Ninja thought he was being sneaky with that seal he used. He wasn't, she could feel when it went active, having spent basically half her life around seals. She couldn't tell what it did without coming into physical contact with the seal, or of course if it was a barrier, by encountering said barrier. But that didn't mean she couldn't deduce the purpose by observing the changes in the two Shinobi.

As soon as she tried to listen to what they were saying, the purpose became clear, leaving her holding back a giggle at how stupid it was. Evidently her ruse had worked, they thought she wouldn't be able to even hear at that distance, meaning that she wouldn't be able to tell that they weren't actually saying anything but gibberish. The seal presumably distorted any soundwaves which left the immediate area, presumably a very small radius around him and his compatriot, leaving it unrecognizable. Of course, that meant she couldn't hear what they were talking about, but there were ways to get around that.

Drifting slowly to the other side of the roof, where visibility of her was very low for the two Shinobi, she popped a shadow clone to life on the next street, which she immediately used a Henge on, turning her into a non-descript villager. The shadow clone gave a sloppy salute, perfect form for a clone of her, then began ambling down the street.

Her task done, Akari stretched her arms up, turning around and looking straight at the ninja for a few seconds before looking away down the road, wandering across the rooftop carelessly. She might have been playing it up a bit, but from the absolutely chilling look the Shinobi at the stall gave her when he met her eye, it was working a treat. The idea was to be a ditzy Chunin, someone they could see being a bit...well, stupid. It rankled her to be so obvious, out in the open and vulnerable, but if things went badly and for some unfathomable reason they decided to attack her, she always had her new depths of Chakra to reach into. "I'm here too you know brat."

Smiling to herself, she spoke in her mind. "I know Kurama, I just don't want either of us to get hurt because I leapt into trying to borrow too much of your strength." That was pretty fair though, thanks to Kurama's strength, she could definitely punch above her weight-class, at least temporarily. Even if the Head Shinobi was stronger than his level suggested, she was confident that she could beat him if Kurama helped her out. Speaking of which...

Kumo Head Shinobi (Name Unknown) - Level 57

He was Level 57. Four levels above her. Strangely though, her old Sensei, Iseya Yuji, was level 55 when he died. So this Head Shinobi was only two levels above him, and Akari was only 1 level beneath the level of Yuji. It put the balance of power askew in her mind, since her Sensei had died remarkably easily, so perhaps-

That was due to U.O.273 - 2 again, he was responsible for your Sensei not avoiding that Senbon, dying from the critical hit.

Oh, well, that cleared that up, but added another question. "Hang on though, didn't he only start messing with this world 3 years after I arrived?"

That is...partially correct. He began in earnest manipulating your Game approximately three standard years after you arrived. However, a standard year is shorter than a year on your current world. As such, whilst for you it was two and a half years after arrival that Iseya Yuji and your team died, in standard years it was over three. That reminds me...

Retro-active EXP Reward correction - +6000EXP.

Nodding, Akari flicked her nails out, looking over them with a hum, then buffing them on her vest. A disgusted noise from one of the Shinobi down below her made clear that he had removed the audio-distorting seal. Of course, she had been speaking within her mind, no need to risk any kind of stupidity over someone hearing what she was saying and getting curious or suspicious. Sticking a hand into her pouch, she pulled another stick of fresh Dango out of her inventory, sliding a ball off the skewer and chewing on it happily.

Hey, if she had to watch a pair of idiots, she could have sweets to pass the time.

The two Shinobi finished their meal, throwing some ryo down before departing.

With a grumpy noise, Kara got up from her position, walking down the centre of the building rooftops in plain view, stick of Dango still in her hand. The Kumo Head Shinobi couldn't be more disgusted and appalled at her utter lack of...well, many things. Care, stealth, tact, she was just the antithesis of what a Shinobi should be. Granted, he liked being direct, a good fight was always nice, but, as his current mission proved, he was more than capable of subterfuge.

That woman following them, on the other hand, wouldn't know subterfuge if it hit her in the face like a Katon Jutsu. There were a few others, who were also following them in a more stealthy manner, but even they were easy for him to detect. They made their way through the village, coming to the building they were staying within, one Konoha had set aside for anyone like themselves who came for official business. As he walked in, he looked up to the building the woman was stood on frowning with a glare, pointing her out with a hand before disappearing inside.

The idiot even waved at him.

"Well, I think this persona is pretty convincing."

The Hokage puffed on his pipe to hide his chuckling and his smirk. "Quite. Though you may want to keep 'Kara' away from any friendly nin. By the time those Kumo-nin entered their lodgings, some of them were tempted to throw Kunai at you themselves." Akari dipped her head, rubbing on the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Right. I may have overdone the whole 'inept Chunin' thing. Then again, even if they loathe Kara, there isn't actually someone for them to hunt down. Even if someone got it in their head to try and hunt her down directly for being a disgrace to Shinobi everywhere, the only place it'll lead is to me, and there's nobody alive who would put me as being that...that idiot." Peering at her over his pipe, Hiruzen raised an eyebrow pointedly. "Hey, I'm not an idiot."

Hiruzen merely puffed on his pipe for a few moments, leaving Akari to stew. "Your own words." But, before she could retort, he continued on. "Regardless, I take it you have ingrained your new persona into the Kumo-nin's minds as being, in your own words, an inept Chunin?" Akari bit back her retort for his earlier words and nodded. "Good. I know that subterfuge isn't your usual mission-style, but we can both agree that this is not a typical mission."

Snorting, Akari shifted in place on the comfy chair. "Hey, you said it yourself, having someone like me take their attention whilst other, more stealth-oriented Jonin do the hard work would work out best for us." Hiruzen nodded in agreement, waiting a few moments before prompting Akari to detail anything prudent she noticed. Aside from the seal that he whacked down to cover his discussions, the two Shinobi didn't do or say anything reporting, which was understandable. The Kumo delegation hadn't been in Konoha for very long, so expecting them to be suspicious immediately wasn't a reasonable expectation.

He dismissed her quickly, which left her leaving his office giggling as he quietly cursed out his, quote, "Sage-damned stealthy secretary." for dropping paper-work off whilst they were distracted. She gave a cheeky wave to the secretary as she passed her by, slipping easily through the small number of people who were ascending the tower for one reason or another.

Reaching the ground floor, she briefly toyed with taking a short C-rank to pass the time, getting bumped into from behind in the moment of distraction. "Oh, excuse me." The person said, shuffling past and upstairs. Throwing a casual 'Don't worry about it.' over her shoulder as they disappeared, Akari hummed. A C-rank would be fun, a nice way to relax, kill a few bandits maybe. Yeah, that sounded like a good evening.

Then her more logical side kicked in, reminding her that she was supposed to be keeping an eye on Shinobi from another village. Disappearing off out of the walls of Konoha to go enjoy a mission wasn't doing that, not by a long shot. If those nin got up to anything whilst she was out having fun, it'd be on her head. As always, her logical side easily won the fight, leaving her slumping slightly, plodding out of the building in a huff.

On the way out, she pulled out a scroll from her pouch, unfurling it in front of herself then beginning to read. More than once she had to side-step a pole or other obstruction, her Sharingan being toggled on then off every few seconds, saving her from having to look up away from what she was reading. Granted, she could have just read it using her Sharingan and assimilated all the information at extreme speed, but she wanted to actually read something for once.

Even if it was just the boring mission report of an idiot genin trying to pickpocket her.

"I still don't like this."

Digging another line in the dirt, Akari shrugged. "I know. But you saw how out-matched I was against Orochimaru." Minato, or at least the spectre of Minato, rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Look, Minato, I know you intended for this to be Naruto's birth-right, but that means he has to actually be alive to receive it. If I get killed and Hiruzen has to re-seal the Kyuubi, there's literally a single person in Konoha who can hold it." The blonde Kage blanched, evidently he hadn't thought of that. "But hey, look on the bright side, he's taking to Fuinjutsu like an Uzumaki should, so when the time comes for him to learn it, he'll probably do just fine."

Minato gave a hesitant nod. "I know that Akari, but...it's like if you gave up to someone else the ability to summon spectres, y'know?" The blonde scratched his head. "It's...it feels wrong giving it to anyone other than Naruto, even to you." Giving a small smile, Akari nodded, patting his hand. "I...I'll let you learn it, but one condition." Akari raised an eyebrow in question. "You let Naruto meet Kushina when he becomes a Genin. I can wait until he's a Chunin, but...he should at least know who his mother was."

Grimacing, Akari considered it. On one hand, it would tell him that she could summon spectres. he might get curious about who his father was, since if Akari knew his mother, chances were she'd know his father. She was very careful to avoid talking about Naruto's father, instead either distracting him with his mother, or other topics entirely. He was bright, one day he would pick up on the fact that Akari knew his mother, and then he'd start asking questions. If, when he became a Genin, Akari revealed that she could bring forth his mother to speak with him, he might demand to see his father, or at least know who the man was.

But on the other hand, it was Kushina's son. He would probably be too happy to actually meet his mother than to question her about his father or demand he at least be allowed to meet him. He'd probably be placated, even motivated, if Akari told him that to meet his father, he'd have to become a Chunin. "Alright...when Naruto makes it to genin, I'll call Kushina to meet him. But I deserve the right to say I told you so if this goes horribly wrong." Minato smiled, a beamingly bright thing that made Akari wince.

"Great! Now, for the Hiraishin, first you have to..."

A bit short, I know.

But, a pretty good pay-off there huh? Akari is starting to learn the Hiraishin! She probably won't be very good at it, because I'm not very comfortable writing it, but it should be fun, and the Game will find a way to incorporate it into yet another broken system that Akari should have received.

Fun times! And that retroactive stat correction was because Akari should have received 50EXP per point from the skill-points dump last chapter. She got 120 points from that, so she gets 120 times 50 experience points, 6000EXP total.

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 53

Age: 16

Experience: 46,445/53,000

To Next Level: 6,555

Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.

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

Health Points: 11,030 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 2106/m - 35.1/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.

Chakra Points: 32,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 6424/m - 107/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.

Strength - 66

Vitality - 54

Endurance - 39

Intelligence - 73

Agility - 65

Wisdom - 88

Luck - 41

35 Skill Points Available