Akai leaned on the railing, tapping her fingers against the metal bars. "Even more people were here... What do you think, Shin?"

Shin shrugged. "If I were in the arena, I would be nervous as hell. Will you be alright, Akito?"

Akito chuckled, looking down at the arena with a grin on his face, "The fight will definitely distract me. Besides, you guys don't have to worry. I'll win for sure."

"That's the spirit!" A voice yelled, tackling the three into a hug. They all shrieked in shock, trying to pry away the arm that had grabbed them. The woman didn't budge, instead she began to spin them around, "You guys are all amazing!! I wish I had a student of my own, not just being an assistant sensei..."

"Anko, let them go. You're choking them." A voice stated, as a large hand could be seen gripping the railing. The woman pouted, releasing the kids, but as soon as she did, she immediately pulled Akai back, and held her shoulders tightly.

"This one wouldn't die even if we stabbed her, Ibiki. Don't worry!"

Akai clicked her tongue, letting out a huff. "Is that even a compliment?"

"I don't know!" The Mitarashi cheered, "But today Akito is the star! That's what I'm sure of!"

Akito chuckled, kicking himself off the edge and sat at the front row, "Maybe, if I win." He simply said, taking his sheathed katana, "But somehow I got a bad feeling here..."

Shin sighed. "Yeah, the feeling's mutual. Let's just pray for the best, I really want to see everyone fight."

The rest of them sat down, and began to talk about their guesses on the match, waiting for the final round to start, while more people entered the place.

| * | * | * | * | * |

"I still like Naruto's fight the most." Shin muttered, watching as a certain Nara forfeited.

"This one has less talking, and the end makes me wanna laugh." Akai told him, "I like this one more. The jutsus are cooler, tashikani. Although Whisker's win is more absolute, but we all know already how he could be wise when fighting."

"When is my fight?!" Akito muttered, not even caring about his friends' discussion. Akai laughed, patting his head as she watched Sasuke entering the arena.

"Be patient. The best is always saved for the last."

"But I want it to be over already!"

Akai shrugged, turning away and sat on the floor, leaning on the railing, crossing her arms.

"I don't get why everyone is so excited. Sharingan against a jinchūriki? I can guess what's going to happen. Their powers are well-known already."

"But that's what makes it interesting!" Shin explained, "At least for me, I want to see if my guesses would be true!"

"You guys are weird." Akito mumbled, pulling out his sheathed katana, and tried to balance it on one finger, "Just hurry up. Just hurry up. Just hurry up." He repeated over and over, as if it was some kind of spell.

Meanwhile, Shin had gritted his teeth in annoyance as he watched the match between the Uchiha and the Sabaku. He kept muttering, "Kick him," or, "Hurry, hit him! Hurry-... Agh, you're late! Stupid!", and some other commands at the 2 fighters on the arena.

Akai, on the other hand, had her fingers tapping on the metal railings, hissing any kind of cursing words every time anyone's hit missed, not supporting any sides, probably hoping both to lose instead.

She stared blankly at the field in which the boys were fighting, but by this time she had completely zoned out and was paying zero attention to the fight. Until Gaara's screams irrupted below her.

"IT'S BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!" Gaara screamed, and everyone in the arena fell quiet.

Sasuke struggled against the ball of sand, attempting to push his arm out of the grasp of whatever it was holding onto him. But when he did get his arm out, the opposite arm that had been holding onto him came out with him. And Akai recognized it in a heartbeat.

The arm of the One-Tailed Beast.

Sure, Akai had only read about it in books when she used to sneak into people's homes, but she remembered the physical features of the beasts from the book.

"Akito, something bad is about to happen." Akai whispered quietly to her teammate beside of her, who gave her a questioning look.

"How do you know?"

"Because that arm is part of the One-Tailed Beast. Like the one that attacked this village so many years ago, the one sealed inside of Naruto." Akai explained as the arm of the One-Tail slowly retracted into the ball of sand.

The tension in the arena could be cut by a knife it was so thick, and no one dared to say a word as the ball of sad released from the red headed boy, exposing him and the bleeding mark on his shoulder. He was panting, as if he was unable to catch his breath and he looked at Sasuke with a new look of hatred in his eyes.

But within the crowd, people were beginning to fall asleep around Akai and her teammates, and being the smart girl she was, Akai knew she was witnessing a Genjutsu. But as a girl who never wanted to be a shinobi, Akai didn't know how she could stop something this powerful.

"Akito, someone's is placing a Genjutsu on this pla-..." Akai said, before her eyes began to slowly close and her head rocked back and forth slowly, her vision becoming hazy before she fell asleep, along with her teammates.

| * | * | * | * | * |

Akai woke up slowly, rubbing her eyes as she did. But this was no peaceful waking time, no, it was a loud and rude awakening from the sound of metal clashing against metal, with moaning and groaning from injured people.

"What the hell, tashikani?!" Akai exclaimed as she quickly got to her feet, noticing her sleeping comrades at her feet. With a roll of her eyes, she kicked both of them one time, causing them to spring to and forward.

"Oi, what the hell Ak-... WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Akito yelled out, and Akai smacked him in the back of the head.

"I don't know, but if you don't shut up, you're going to alert every person in here where we are, tashikani!" Akai said, before she pulled her dagger out of its holder, and began to glance around as she slowly started to move through the broken, and falling stadium.

"We need to find Ibiki. Come on." Akai said, and her teammates followed her in an attempt to sneak around without being noticed, but to no avail.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A sand shinobi said as he stepped in front of Akai, stopping her and her team in their tracks.

"Sh*t." Akai said, causing the sand shinobi to laugh lightly. But this laugh was cut short when the sand nin pulled out a kunai and took a fighting stance in front of Akai. The blue haired girl looked back at her teammates and began to motion her head in the other direction.

"You guys go, find Scarface or someone. I got this, tashikani."

"But Akai-..."

"GO." She demanded, before turning her attention back to her opponent with her dagger raised in a fight position.

"Oh look, little girl wants to protect her teammates." The sand ninja said in a mocking tone as he stared at Akai. "Too bad it just cost you your life!" He said, laughing loudly as he charged at Akai with his kunai raised.

With her own dagger, Akai pushed back against his weapon, causing a screeching noise between the two metals. The Sand nin pushed down against Akai, causing her dagger to slip out of the place and her arms to fall slightly, but she quickly moved her arms to create an 'X' shape over the top of her head.

The man laughed as he went to lodge his kunai in the girl's arm, but was very surprised when the kunai went through her liquified limbs.

"W-What?" The nin said, his hand and kunai inside of the girl's translucent arms.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you! Blades don't work against me!" She said happily before her entire body became liquid and she fell to the ground in a puddle. The man she was fighting stood as if he was frozen from watching his opponent turn to water without any hand signs, without any thought.

Akai used this to her advantage, and pulled herself back together. With a slight giggle, Akai stabbed her dagger into the back of the man's neck, causing him to fall to the ground.

And when she looked at the body below her, Akai's eyes flickered between grey and red for a few moments, before she shook her head quickly as if she was trying to stop what was happening.

With a small smile still placed on her lips, Akai leaped away from the dead man on the ground. His death made her happy, and she didn't know why.

But the thought of blood, of corpses and deaths, made her grin grew wider.

| * | * | * | * | * |

Akai stood on top of a building, the fight finally over. But she stared off into the distance of the shattered remains of the hidden leaf. A place she had grown to love, broken to the ground. Just like her old home.

With a clenched fist, she closed her eyes and turned her head down. For some reason, she was beginning to blame herself.

Akai has always been the person who blamed herself when things went bad. And she was blaming herself for this attack. Maybe if she was stronger, maybe if she was able to protect people better, not as many people would have died.

But while Akai stood there, mourning the Leaf, a hand was placed on her shoulder. And when Akai turned around, there stood Ibiki. Without thinking, Akai turned and hugged Ibiki, which caused a confused look to form over the man's face. But nevertheless, he hugged the girl back and the two stood there, smoke surrounding them from the fallen buildings around them.

And Akai let one single tear slid down her face.

| * | * | * | * | * |

Akai sat on her bed, thinking. That strange sensation she felt just a while ago... When the kunai went through the man's neck...

No, wait. It might be strange, but it was familiar. When was the last time she felt that way...?

Pulling out her dagger, she wiped away the blood from it, staring at her reflection on the blade, while recalling the moments when she used her dagger, her sword.

'Kirigakure', that word suddenly crossed her mind. Her eyes widened, and she gripped the hilt tighter. Yes, that's when. When she was working for the Mizukage, as the head of the Assassination Squad, killing and torturing people, blood everywhere, the smell of corpses, burning down the bodies, beating up the prisoners, seeing their desperate expression, listening to their begs for mercy-...

Her eyes flickered red on the blade. Akai's breath hitched, quickly sheathing the blade. No, impossible. Her eyes were grey, right?

A flashback crossed her mind, a scene she had forgotten for years.

The shinobi stared at his blue-haired leader, who kicked a corpse away from herself as she lifted up her large sword.

"That's what you get for messing with me." She hissed, "Once you're trapped in my Mist, it's over for you. You can't beat the Red Mist."

"But, Captain, they didn't name you 'Red Mist' just because of your Mist jutsu." The shinobi commented, as he crouched over one of the enemy's body, checking the pulse.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you know?" The shinobi asked back, pulling up the body, putting cuffs around the wrists and threw it over his shoulder, as he stood back up.

"Captain, when you're fighting, your eyes turned red too. That's why they all got scared. You got this crazy look on your face, with a devilish grin. You are unstoppable, especially with that sword. You looked like you're really enjoying the job."

"I do love doing this."

Akai shook her head, slowly leaning onto the wall behind her. No, she doesn't want to remember. She tried so hard to forget those years, those years when she lived like a true monster.

'Working' everyday to enjoy the pleasure of taking others' lives, spilling their blood on the ground and piercing her sword through their body, seeing them in so much pain, and-...

Akai clutched her head. Did she say pleasure? No, please don't. The old Akai should never wake up. She was evil, cruel, brutal. Heartless.

The only thing that managed to snap her out of the bloodthirsty lifestyle was the time when Suigetsu got kidnapped. She woke up from the bloodlust trance and decided to stop. Quitting the squad, leaving the village, much to the Mizukage's dismay.

No. The old Akai must never wake up. Especially not in this village, where everything is warm and everyone is kind unlike Kiri.

If the old Akai returned, everyone would be scared of her. They would fear their safety near her. She would harm them.

She's tired of being called a monster. Let's keep it like this, Akai the cheerful and kind ex-thief.

Not a heartless murderer.

| * | * | * | * | * |

Akai stood in the cemetery, behind so many crowds, watching as some people stood at the front and said their condolences.

Another funeral, she thought, after Mom's and Dad's, then Mangetsu's, and now this.

To be truthful, she felt really thankful to the late Hokage. He gave her a place to call home, forcefully turning her into a shinobi, which, actually, wasn't so bad. If he didn't do that and let her leave, she would still be travelling to who-knows-where, without a single friend.

Akai sighed, staring at the new tombstone. Hiruzen Sarutobi. When she blinked, the name changed.

Akai Hozuki.

A gasp escaped her lips. She quickly shook her head. Another part of her hallucination. No, she wouldn't die. Not this soon, right?

Akai turned away, her body liquified into a puddle, leaving the funeral.

As soon as she was out of the cemetery, Akai returned to her normal form. The village was mostly empty, almost everyone was attending the said funeral. Gritting her teeth, Akai decided to go to the nearest training ground to get her mind off the previous sight, her own name on a tombstone. She jumped onto the roof, continuing her dash off the ground.

But not far from the gate, she stopped. 3 figure could be seen walking out of the village silently.

A girl with blue hair, a black haired boy, and Sameshi.

Her uncle's team. Whoever they are and whatever they want, it was far too suspicious to leave during the funeral. As criminals, they should have known better to blend in and not standing out.

So why in such a hurry?

| * | * | * | * | * |

Damn, how long has it been since the last update? No, how short? 3, 4 days?

Our speed of writing kept increasing, eh? More than 2500 words, I like that. Much better than the last chapter. I can't wait to post the next chapter. Chapter 19, officially my favorite. You guys just wait.

When is the next update? We don't know, but don't worry, it won't be a long wait. We've finished the last chapter already XD

Please don't forget to comment, what do you think about this chapter? Click that little star button, too! Thank you, and see you soon, tashikani!

| * | * | * | * | * |

By the way, we're planning to make a one-shot book. A few choices here:

- Akai x Akito

- Kisame x Mairu

- Comment on other things you can think of!

If you had any ideas, please tell us! It might help a lot!