"Are you ready?" Mikado asked her grandson while adjusting her kimono
"Yes, yes, I am ready!" Akashi said, walking out of the room as he fastened his black obi around his kimono. "Damnit, why can't I just wear my usual clothes?" he asked, exasperated
Contrary to his usual style, today he wore completely traditional clothes with the crests of both the Uchiha and Uzumaki on his sleeves.
"It has been a few weeks since you left the estate." She took a brief pause
"This is a simple show for those you will be watching."
They both knew who she was talking about, the higher-ups of Konoha, but in truth every clan will have a few eyes on him.
"Let's go then,"
A few minutes later
Akashi and his grandmother arrived at the door of the Senju compound; they were followed by two attendants, both of whom were from the Uchiha clan.
They had no trouble walking into the compound of the Senju clan.
It's not like it was the first time, and contrary to what most people think, the relationship between the Senju and the Uchiha is not that of enemies; they were now nothing more than rivals.
"Hello there, little Akashi!" Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the first Hokage, shot out of her seat as soon as Mikado and Akashi entered the room
She walked in front of Akashi in a few strides and bent down in front of him
"Hoa are you little guy, it has been so long since I saw you," she said patting and ruffling Akashi's red hair.
The serious expression on his face broke as he felt the hands of the old woman's hands make a mess of his hair.
"What are you doing?" he said, shouting out of her hands as he frantically and unsuccessfully tried to smooth his now spiky long hair.
"It took me ten minutes to straighten them."
"Ah, sorry, sorry." Mito Uzumaki said with an apologetic expression on her aged face; she appeared much older than Mikado, even though she was younger.
"Come, sit down," she said, moving back to the seat inside while pulling Akashi beside her.
Soon the conversation started.
During that time, Mito treated Akashi with care and asked him about his life, his training, and his friends.
They talked about all and everything, but avoided any complicated or heavy topics.
After a few minutes, Akashi simply got up from the seat and walked inside; none of the guards or servants stopped him, noone even really paid real attention to him.
On the contrary as if they were waiting for it betweem Mito and Mikado a strange tension filled the room as all the servants left the room.
"So... what is your excuse now, princess!" Mikado said, looking at Mito with eyes filled with contempt and distrust. "Your so great village helped strangers, enemies destroyed your people, your family. And you did nothing!" Mikado nearly spat
"There is no proof that Konoha had anything to do with that.
"Konoha gained nothing from the fall of Uzushio except the loss of an incredible ally."
"Gain nothing! Where is Kushina again?" Mikado said, pointing out the presence of the next jinchiruki
"What happened to all the distribution channel of seals of the clan," the revenu that they had generated. Oh, I nearly forgot the reaper death seals and all the other seals that miraculously appeared in the repertoire of your village. Are you mocking me?"
The anger in Mikado's tone was palpable.
"They didn't want the other village to benefit of destroying Uzushio. That cooperation between them was reached in secret; they surprised us all. They surprised even you,"
That sentence touched a sour spot for Mikado. Mito was right she too, had been lured in a false sense of security, if Akashi had not told her about his dream all the Uzumaki would've been exterminated wuth the survivors reduce to homeless people like so many clans before them.
It's not because a few of her people had survived that she didn't mourn the rest, and Mito couldn't be allowed to know that any real organized group of Uzumaki still existed, or it could reach the higher-ups of Konoha.
"Everyone and everything is lost because we trusted you and your village, but I am sure that you don't really care about that, after all, your real family is still alive and well."
"How dare you?" Mito mumbled; her chakra mixed with the chakra of the nine-tailed filled the room.
That chakra, due to its mix with that of the tailed beast, made it impure, like poison.
Cracks appeared under Mito's feet before spreading everywhere in the room.
Boom
Another wave of chakra spread out from Mikado's body.
The chakra of the Mikado was not as powerful but was incredibly stable, and didn't lose against the one released by Mito.
After a few seconds, Mito let out a dejected sigh
"The only reason I am still here is for Akashi. I don't want him to be manipulated by your 'will of fire'" the disgust as she said it couldn't be hidden. "Luckily, he still has his grandfather to shield him. Who would have thought that the Uchiha would be the ones on whom I can rely until?"
"It might not last; you know very well that they don't accept him there,"
"As long as Tetsuma is there, he will be fine,"
A long silence filled the space between them as they looked at each other in silence.
The gaze of one was full of guilt, and the other's full of resentment.
"What do you want?" Mito asked, "You didn't come here just to tell me how much Konoha has changed; you have another goal. What is it?"
"I want you to..."
....
Akashi was walking through the Senju compound without any trouble; no one stopped him, and the servants who met him bowed their heads in respect.
He had somehow procured himself a glass of orange juice on the way.
"Goals reached," Akashi said, looking at the door in front of him.
Without any ceremony, he opened the door and walked in
The room was in complete disarray.
'Tsunade's room,' Akashi thought
Stacks of books could be seen laying everywhere, on the tables, on the bed, on the ground.
But books were not the only thing in the room; bottles of Soju and different types of gambling games were present
Bending down, he picked up a medical book and skimmed it a little
"The old woman is still as messy as ever," Akashi said before tossing it back on the ground.
"She is not here; I should have asked if she was already deployed on the front.
"Hey. Someone come," He asked in the air
Whoosh
A Senju ninja appeared at the door of the room.
"Yes, young... master!?" the ninja asked, unsure of the proper way to address Akashi.
But Akashi didn't dwell on that; he wasn't the young master of the Senju after all.
"Is Tsunade still here?"
"Lady Tsunade has not yet been deployed on the front, but she is busy at the hospital overseeing things."
"I see. Where is the other then?"
"The young master is in the training ground three."
"Alright, thanks," Akashi said, leaving the room
Clank clank clank
As he moved closer of his destination, Akashi could hear the sounds of weapons clashing.
Soon he saw the person he was looking for
Nawaki Senju, Tsunade's younger brother.
He was about eight years old, four years older than Akashi, but he was one of the guys Akashi was in relatively good terms with.
The guy was extremely extroverted and had no problem making friends.
'Orochimaru!' Akashi thought, looking at the young Orochimaru. "He looks young," he thought as he sat down beside a tree, watching the master and disciple train.
He remembered that Orochimaru was indeed Nawaki's teacher.
'He looks normal.' Akashi thought as he looked at the future rogue ninja of Konoha. 'Pale skin, long black hair, piercing yellow eyes.'
'But all that gave him an exotic and cool feeling; he must be popular with girls... That's unfortunate that he prefers children.'
His face suddenly became a little strange
'Wait, I am a child, should I run...'
Akashi's heart beat wildly for a second before he calmed down. 'We are still years away from his child-idolizing phase. For now, he is still normal.'
On the training ground, Orochimaru just looked at the various strange expressions that Akashi showed with a mere tilt of the head before returning to his disciple.
'If I activate my Sharingan to copy the training regimen, the higher-ups would know about it the same afternoon
'Should I try to change things?' Akashi thought. Since he remembered his past life, his perspective in life changed; he knew that he wasn't living in an anime, everyone around him was living people with their own life and their own goals.
But, he was really indiferents to it, he was still wondering if that indiference come from the gods eyeview that he had on this world or if it was normal, after all even in his past life he was indiferents to others suffering, focusing only on his own struggles.
'Humans are selfish creatures; it is as much the case in this world as it was in the last,'
His gaze turned back toward the pair sparring in front of him.
'Nawaki is a kind kid, but this kind kid has already killed people,' as an acquaintance he knew very well; that kind kid once bragged about how he killed bandits in his first mission.
'Nawaki is kind, Tsunade is kind too, she is even my aunt. Lady Mito too is kind; Minato Namikaze is kind; they are all trained killers. Konoha helped destroy Uzushiogakure, but from what grandma said she didn't even confront Hiruzen and the others for that.'
'Grandma considers them enemies; Grandpa no longer trusts them after what he learned of the possible extermination of Uchiha in the future.'
'...I personnally hate the mere possibility that they might even consider me one of their ninjas, a subordinate, a mere knife in someone else hand, why do so many fanfic write becoming a hire thug like an honor, born a Uzumaki and Uchiha i am probably already in the visors of Hiruzen and Danzo, I'm I disposed to change the future and lose my advantage in the world in favor of peoples that will kill me to protect their disfonctional village without hesitation.'
After a few seconds, a small smile appeared on Akashi's face
'No, I am not!'
"I am a selfish person,"
'But at the same time it might already be too late; things might have already completely changed. After all, Akashi Uzumaki Uchiha wasn't supposed to exist!'