Chapter 26

Bleh, I'm tired, but here, another chapter. I have no fucking idea when this is going to actually be uploaded, but hopefully not too far in the future.

Do any of you boos play The Long Dark? I love wandering around in the wilderness with eyes peering out for animals to hunt, wary of wolves and bears with snow crunching under my boots, shivering occasionally from the frosty mountain winds. Makes me wish I lived somewhere colder like Greenland, Canada or Svalbard, nice and cold. The South-West of England is just wet, mild and miserable most of the year.

Just curious!

Also, I fucked up again. I accidentally put a 4 instead of a three, so Akari had 42,620, not 32,620. I don't have time to go through each chapter making absolutely sure she says the right number, so if you notice that anywhere, PLEASE tell me in a review so I can fix it.

Chapter 26

"Hokage-sama, Uchiha Akari is here to see you."

The wizened old man raised an eyebrow, laying down his pen and waving a hand at the door. "Let her in, I'm not writing anything sensitive." Hiruzen was mildly surprised, usually Akari would wait until a far more respectable hour to report on anything, so this visit was most likely extremely important. When she entered, he could tell something major had happened. Her skin almost felt sheathed in a layer of faint Bijuu chakra, and though many wouldn't notice it, Hiruzen noted that her clothing, all of it, looked strangely new, a far cry from the frayed and worn equipment she usually wore when seeing him after a mission.

Before he could get a word in greeting, she spoke. "Hokage-sama, please activate your privacy seals, what I have to report is almost definitely an S-class secret." Her strict, no-nonsense tone made even Hiruzen unconsciously straighten up, surreptitiously reaching under his desk with a little Chakra, toggling his seals on, his ANBU having already left the room when they saw him reach for the seal, a sign that he trusted the information he was about to be given, as well as that Akari was who she said she was. When he gave a shallow nod to inform her that the room was clear and sealed, she began.

"I will start from after defeating the Kumo Head Ninja to keep this report short. This action was after he attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga Head's daughter, Hinata. I captured him alive then escorted the Hyuuga Heiress to her residence, giving a brief report on my actions within the Hyuuga Compound to their Head before leaving for my apartment, having left the unconscious man in Hyuuga custody. When I arrived, my seals had been de-activated, the door open, and Naruto was gone. Leaving through an open window, I summoned a panda capable of tracking who led me to a section of wall concealed by some kind of Henge or Fuinjutsu which made it appear solid, when in fact it was hollow, then through the forest. I encountered several dozen enemy nin with blank masks who held me in place long enough for Shimura Danzo to use an unknown Genjutsu on me, compelling me to obey his commands."

Hiruzen held several surprised expressions during Akari's report, but he held back his words and questions as she made to continue. "In retrospect, I believe this to be the same ability you told me of around a year ago, Kotoamatsukami. It fits the description which Shisui submitted and which I read, but at the time, I didn't realize it. None-the-less, I was compelled to follow him into another similarly-concealed rock, leading me underground to a labyrinth of tunnels. During this time, my mind itself was within my own mindscape, speaking with the Kyuubi." Hiruzen noted how Akari blunted a wince as she spoke the word 'Kyuubi', filing it away for further study.

"We spoke, and we came up with a plan to escape. As Kotoamatsukami was influencing me but not him, we decided that...I would break the Eight-Trigrams Shiki Fujin." Hiruzen inhaled sharply, his eyes keen as he analyzed Akari's carefully-controlled expression. "Doing this allowed the Kyuubi control over my body, therefore bypassing the mental control Kotoamatsukami possessed over me. How exactly that worked when the Genjutsu was supposed to influence the physical body I do not know, perhaps his potent Chakra burned out the Genjutsu, I'm not sure, but it worked."

Akari winced again as she said Kyuubi, a very interesting observation. "When the Kyuubi took control over my body, he attacked Shimura Danzo, breaking his spine with a Chakra-infused punch, then attempting to attack him again. Danzo then used an unknown Jutsu to somehow reverse the damage dealt to his body, simultaneously re-positioning to avoid the second blow. As he called for his ninja, ROOT he called them, to subdue my body, the Kyuubi formed a Bijuudama, coating my body with his Chakra so we didn't die before unleashing it, annihilating near-all of the base, in the process killing Shimura Danzo and, as far as he could sense, all of his ninja."

Akari then took a single step back, her hands folded behind her back. Hiruzen concealed his sheer bewilderment by lighting his pipe, taking a sweet puff of tobacco then exhaling. In that single action, he centred himself, collating the information given to him by Akari into the best way to protect Konoha. But one thing niggled at his mind,. compelling him to ask a question. "And...what is your current situation with the Kyuubi?" Akari suppressed a wince for a third time when he asked her that. "Is there something wrong with the word Kyuubi, Akari?"

Closing her eyes, Akari sighed. "He doesn't like being called 'Kyuubi', he thinks it's demeaning and a name not befitting a...quote, 'magnificent being such as myself.' He has given me his name, but I don't know if he...no, he doesn't wish it to be spread. He...oh for fucks sake." Muttering under her breath, Akari shook her head. "He just realized how stupid it is that he doesn't want to be referred to as Kyuubi, but also doesn't have a name that he's happy giving out. So, from now on, he at least wants to be identified as Kurama, even after he said that the only living human he wanted to know that name was me."

Taking a long puff of his pipe, Hiruzen considered the facts. "So you are now in direct communication with the Ky-...with Kurama?" Akari sheepishly nodded. "And what is his stance on lending his power towards aiding Konoha and her interests?" Akari's head snapped up in surprise.

"Uhh, well, he says that as long as the situation truly requires his power, he's happy to help 'me'. He said he couldn't care less about Konoha itself, but if I ever need his aid for something, he would give it. He recognized my own strength though, so he'll only help me when I truly need it...oh, or if I ask nicely and sacrifice a hundred virgins to him." Akari looked like she was speaking honestly, though grinning at the last part as a joke, but which the rest threw Hiruzen for a loop somewhat. That would mean she had somehow managed to befriend the strongest Bijuu, something neither Mito nor Kushina managed in a far longer period of being Jinchuriki.

At one point, he recalled a far younger Kushina coming into his office yelling about how the nine-tailed fox was 'a bastard fox who wouldn't listen to her...'ttebane. "I...see." he finally settled for, having reached the point where further thinking would be strange. "Well, I suppose congratulations are in order. I would one day like to meet this Kurama in a more friendly way than our last encounter." Akari shrugged.

"He said 'Sure, I have a few words for that old monkey anyway.'...sorry about that, he has no qualms being rude to anyone...huh, kinda like me sometimes I guess." Hiruzen merely chuckled. "So, I'll deliver my full written report...uhh, later today?" The old Kage's eyes flicked up to a clock, nodding when he saw the time.

"That sounds great Akari-san. I shall...see you later." The girl left the room with a brief wave, leaving the man to think silently. Her explanation covered pretty much everything he actually needed or wanted to know, and with her full report coming later on, he would get the details. He was grateful that she had mentioned that her tenant had used a Bijuudama, he had received a few tentative inquiries as to whether Akari was using Bijuu Chakra from several of his ANBU who were extremely good sensors, so any questions that arose could be explained by her training, which would also open the door for her to begin actively using the Kyuubi's Chakra. He chuckled to himself.

"Kurama, huh?"

Throwing herself onto her sofa, Akari sighed deeply, closing her eyes.

Taking that info to the Hokage like that was pretty nerve-racking, since if he decided she was too much of a threat with the Shiki-Fujin practically broken, he could have just ordered his ANBU to seal her until Jiraiya could come along and re-seal Kurama. She was glad that, for all that she forgot to ever use proper suffixes or show due respect, he trusted her enough to believe that what she had done was in the best interests of herself and Konoha.

Plus, Kurama seemed pretty happy that Konoha wasn't going to just reseal him into someone else, someone far more inclined to force him to give them his Chakra in their fights. Akari was quite happy to let him doze in the seal, she would only ever pull on his power if she really needed it. She put her hands to the back of her neck, taking a few moments to just...do nothing at all. No thinking about the Game, or her next mission, or if Naruto had enough of everything. Just...a scant few moments of peace.

But, not even opening her eyes, she opened the menu of the Game, frowning to herself.

Danzo Shimura Defeated! Assist-Kill!

20,000 Exp earned (Would have been 40,000)

337 ROOT Agents Defeated! Assist-Kill!

132 Chunin-level Agents - 5,000 Exp per Kill

110 Tokubetsu Jonin-level Agents - 7,500 Exp per Kill

95 Jonin-level Agents - 10,000 Exp per Kill.

Total Kill-Exp reward - 1,217,500 Exp (Would have been 2,435,000)

Quest completed.

Eyes of the Beholder.

Objectives:

Escort the Kumo Shinobi within Konoha - Completed.

Stop whatever plot they are hatching tonight - Completed.

Reward: 150,000 experience.

Hidden Objective:

Survive Danzo Shimura's plot to indoctrinate you and your son - Completed. 200,000 Exp earned.

She was pleased to receive so much experience obviously, but the fact that it was pretty much halved was a bit annoying. It was still her body actually doing it, but since she wasn't in control, she didn't get the full reward? That seemed a bit bullshit, but she could deal with it. A grand total of 1,237,500 experience for basically kicking back and letting Kurama kick butt was definitely worth it. Plus she got another 350,000 from the quest she completed. She opened her character sheet up, eyes focusing on a few key points, ignoring the rest entirely.

Level: 77

Experience: 65,945/77,000

To Next Level: 11,055

155 Skill Points Available

She just...leveled up twenty four fucking times.

For doing basically fuck all. She still felt a bit cheated of experience, but considering how big of a jump that was, she felt it was ignorable. Another jump like that and she'd be four fucking levels above the Hokage, who was at level 97. Considering the man was regaled as a God of Shinobi in his prime, and as far as she could tell levels never went down with age, if she got maybe ten more levels, she would be able to rival Sarutobi in his prime.

Thinking of extremely strong Shinobi then made her curse herself out. She still hadn't actually checked to see what level Minato was, or Kushina. For that matter, she had two extremely strong Shinobi whose faces she saw practically every day. The Shodai and Nidaime Hokages, Hashirama and Tobirama Senju. Thinking about it, she realized that she definitely filled the criteria for Megami no Mon to be applicable. She knew their names and what they looked like, so picturing them mentally would be a cinch. Plus, it'd definitely be interesting to meet the man who founded Konohagakure as she knew it, as well as his brother, who invented the Shadow Clone Jutsu, as well as the foundation for Minato's Hiraishin.

That was another thing she had to get back to work on. While she could inscribe the tags just fine, memorizing how Minato's chakra flowed into the seal with a single observation, she still had to practice to make absolutely sure she didn't fuck it up. Fuinjutsu was one of the few Ninja Arts which you really couldn't afford to fuck up. Some things, like explosive tags, were only dangerous because they are inherently meant to be dangerous. The Hiraishin, if she messed up a single seal line thanks to sloppy calligraphy, could end up throwing her guts across the entire Elemental Nations, or only send her organs, leaving the rest of her body behind.

Every time she thought about it, she was reminded of how bat-shit insane the Uzumaki Clan was, to be known for a bloodline which involved basically living, drinking and breathing Fuinjutsu ink, as well as being tough enough to survive when someone inevitably fucked up a seal. Akari was glad that her own Fuinjutsu teacher was far less insane than she had been led to believe an Uzumaki seals master was.

Then again, her idea of training was basically slave labour.

Akari spent that evening sleeping on the couch, too tired from the days exertions to bother trundling down the hallway into her bed.

As such, she was in a prime position to glare at the door when someone came along and knocked. Yawning deeply enough to practically dislocate her jaw, Akari slid off the comfortable cushions with a grumble. In the time it took her to reach the door, she had woken herself up. It wouldn't do to open the door looking like she was extremely tired, especially if she was being called for a mission or something. Just as she unlocked the door, she threw a quick glance back through the kitchen, looking at the window to see that the sun was just now beginning to rise, meaning she'd been asleep for maybe four or five hours.

Swinging the door open, she blinked in surprise. "Oh, uh, hey there Sei, what's up?" Her brother took one look at her, then walked into the apartment, guiding her to the sofa whilst kicking the door shut. "Uhh, okay then?" Akari muttered, watching her brother in bemusement as he went into her kitchen, somehow sniffing out her small stash of tea instantly, making a brew without saying anything to her about why he was there.

...Yes, she had a stash of tea. Good quality tea in the Elemental Nations was hard to come by. She had one such stash of good tea back in her old hideout in her past life fighting in a war-zone, and now she had one in her new life. How her brother could find it just like...oh, right, his Golan-seal. Plus, it wasn't superbly hidden or anything. Speaking of Golan-seals, she took a pile of empty seal paper out of her inventory, laying them down on the table.

If her brother wanted something, but wanted to make her a cup of tea first, she could crack on with writing a few more seals out for the Hospital. She'd fallen behind a little because of her recurring night-time mission, but the hospital was understanding, even if it pissed them off how Akari refused to teach anyone else how to make the seal. While her hand wove through the now-familiar seal, she idly considered the 155 Skill Points she now possessed, and how best to spend them.

If she put every single one into her Int and Wisdom, matching the two numbers together, she'd have 158 into each stat. That meant an absolutely insane 125,000 Chakra Points rounded down, with a regeneration rate of nearly 25,000 points per minute, about 415 per second.

Alternatively, she could buff her vitality and endurance, making herself practically immune to poisons. Or her agility, or strength. She could even increase her massively-neglected luck stat. Well, first she settled for increasing all her stats to sixty if they were below that, leaving her with 109 points. Then, she bumped Intelligence up to eighty, Wisdom to ninety, then strength and agility to seventy. This put her at 91. Tapping her chin with her brush, careful to avoid flicking ink anywhere, she weighed the pros and cons of putting her stats into different things.

Strength would be useful, since she still wasn't physically strong enough to go toe-to-toe with an average Jonin in a head-on fight, being able to overpower a man taller, larger and more physically daunting than her would be a great surprise and intimidation factor. And, adding that onto her strong melee combat abilities, she would be an absolute menace in close quarters.

Vitality and Endurance would be great for tanking hits. Being stabbed in the guts by a lightning-wreathed fist, then being eviscerated as his hand was ripped back out of her, meant she took just a little over four and half thousand damage. If she buffed her Vit and End with those points, dying would be genuinely hard. A normal enemy wouldn't really stand a chance.

Her Intelligence and Wisdom would grant her even more Chakra, but she was honestly pretty comfortable with the 36,500 she now had. Agility would be pretty interesting to level, leaving her zipping around, bending around blows and generally acting like the second coming of the Yondaime, only instead of a yellow flash, she'd be the Crimson Flash. Yeah, that sounded like a fun idea.

She briefly looked at her luck stat, contemplating what could happen if she just threw all of her points into it, but decided that even if it did solve all her problems before they ever started, she wouldn't want that. This was her second life, a chance to have fun, and she was most fucking certainly not going to waste it by being too lucky. All 91 points went into her agility, bringing it from the already respectable 70 all the way to 161.

Lifting her arm up, she frowned. She didn't really feel any faster. She looked over at her brother, Sharingan off mind you, and she...blinked. Then a second time, rubbing her eyes. He was moving slowly. Not like, stupidly slow-motion or anything, but there was a definite slowness to every action he took. Reaching over, pulling things to him, even turning his head slightly, they were all more than a little slower than they should be.

Getting up from the sofa, she set her Fuinjutsu supplies down and jogged over to him casually. She knew something had changed though when she took the first step towards, then second, third and fourth, making it halfway to him in the time it took him to place the lid on the tea-pot. She sidled up beside him, taking the mugs from the shelf casually then heading back to the living room, smirking to herself as Sei turned around in surprise, watching her as she calmly sat down, then shaking his head in bemused exasperation. "You've gotten faster then."

Grinning, Akari shrugged. "Meh, a little." She was lucky everyone she knew just sort of accepted that Akari didn't play by normal rules, just like how Might Guy didn't care that he couldn't run ten-thousand laps around Hi no Kuni in an hour, he would damn well do it or he would do ten-thousand pushups with the entire Daimyo's Court on his back, and if he couldn't do that...you get the picture, he was a bit insane. Nice enough guy, but a bit...touched in the head. Kakashi had his porn, Guy had his ridiculous boasts, Akari had her Game.

Of course, other Shinobi didn't know that, they saw it as Akari having some kind of batshit insane training routine like Guy's, the reason why she could progress so rapidly. She was also not even out of her teens, making people just assume she was learning fast because she was younger than them. "Have you seen Kaa-san recently?" Sei spoke again after the brief silence.

Frowning, Akari tipped her head back. "I mean, I saw her...two, maybe three weeks ago. But I can't really count that, we just chatted for five minutes when we happened to run into each other. Why? Did something happen?" Sei shrugged, a wry grin on his lips giving away that whatever happened, it wasn't a bad thing. "Oh come on Sei! Tell me already." She then winced, looking down the hallway and lowering her voice. After listening and hearing Naruto's steady breathing, she sighed n relief at having not woken him up.

"Well, a little someone told me she's been getting friendly with Mikoto. You know, the Clan Head's wife?" Akari nodded idly, wondering where the hell this was going. Sure, Mikoto and her mother in the same room sounded kinda interesting, but not- "Well, according to Kana-kaasan, Mikoto-san has been looking for a playmate for her son, and so I-" He didn't even get a chance to finish as Akari lunged at him for a hug.

It wasn't that Akari needed a break from Naruto, it was just a fucking nightmare trying to find kids for Naruto to spend time with. All her friends were single or with short-term partners, they didn't have kids. The closest they had to kids were their genin, if they even had a team that was. And genin were too old most of the time, the only exceptions being prodigies.

She then mentally connected something without even meaning to. That little Hyuuga girl, Hinata. If Akari could convince that asshat Hyuuga Clan Head to let his daughter join, perhaps under the guise of strengthening future ties to the Uchiha. Maybe she could even have a chat with Inoichi, she knew he had a little girl about Hinata's age. Maybe he could see about bringing the children of the other clan heads, which would add credibility to the idea of strengthening the ties between all of Konoha's prominent clans. And of course, she could maybe even get other clans to chip in. It'd all have to be carefully protected of course...

Sei grinned and released Akari from the hug, having smartly recognized her current expression as her 'I'm thinking, fuck off or I'll stab you.' face.

Okee-dokie, this took a while.

Work was fun, but a bit hectic and bleh. Working with all this Corona crap going on is also a bit off-putting, but whatever, can't pay the bills writing for free unfortunately. Inserting a shameful plug about my pat reon page here for you boos, I do have one!

I know this chapter isn't a super strong one compared to the fighting once, I just needed to give her the Exp for killing Danzo and ROOT, completing Eyes of the Beholder, and setting up some fun background stuff before we move onto the main event. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Shisui!

ALSO! If you leave a review (And I adore you all for your fucking awesomely kind words!) and you ask something, then please check your inbox after like 12 hours have passed, that pretty much guarantees that I've responded to ya! I do honestly try to respond to as many reviews as I can!

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 77

Age: 16

Experience: 65,945/77,000

To Next Level: 11,055

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: 18,500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 3600/m - 60/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.

Chakra Points: 36,620 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 7200/m - 120/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.

Strength - 70

Vitality - 60

Endurance - 60

Intelligence - 80

Agility - 161

Wisdom - 90

Luck - 60