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Finally found a picture of Akina with the rinnegan.. how ironic.

Read A/N at the end...

Sakura wasn't sure what happened. One minute she was defending Konoha against Pain and Tobi, and in the next Naruto and Akina were hurled into a whirlpool of chakra by the masked man. 

Literally, not even thirty seconds later, they came out of the hole which has reappeared, this time wearing different clothes. The fighting around them paused, as they hacked and coughed loudly. 

Just what happened in there?

The both of them stood up, supporting each other's weights. Akina gently placed a hand on her stomach, almost as if hiding something. Her chakra had changed, to something which resembled when she was still a genin in Konoha.

Before the incident with Danzo.

Before Kurenai released the seal on her stomach.

Before this shitfest even happened.

It was more controlled.

"If you don't give us the Kyuubi," Tobi voiced silkily, "well, I'm sure you know what will happen."

"Well, we'll just see during the war then, won't we?" Akina snapped. "How dare you take us into your damn Tsukuyomi? It was torture. Showing us what we wanted, but taking something else in the process.. our own identities and what defined us to be us."

Tobi shrugged in a childlike manner. "I never said it was perfect~"

Her eyes shifted to Pain. "You know you can't win. It'll be suicide. If you want to crush Konoha, crush them in the final battle." 

As a tense silence covered them, Tobi nodded curtly. "Very well. Take care of your... deceased till then. Until we meet, Akina."

They disappeared within the kamui. Akina took a step forward, staring at her teammates. "Show yourself to Konoha or retreat now. There's no use hiding any of your faces." 

With that she broke free from the group and walked towards the center of the crater formed, raising her hands all the way with her eyes glowing purple. Sakura stared at Naruto, glowering at them. 

"She said it! Show yourselves!"

"It's actually our own choice to show ourselves, un. I'm leaving." Deidara spoke with a narrowed gaze. "Something's wrong, isn't it?"

Sakura, standing next to him nodded absentmindedly. The hurt inside her heart itched. The loneliness Naruto would've felt, knowing that all his teammates were dead or betrayers would've saddened him greatly - especially since he thought Sasuke was still out for a mission. "I'm showing myself, in the end, I was born and raised in Konoha and Naruto is my teammate. You should come too, Sasuke."

"Tch.."

"Sasuke." 

He begrudgingly stepped forwards and uncovered his mask as Sakura did the same. 

And Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, his cerulean blue eyes crinkling. 

"I knew it.. you both are alive."

"Of course I'm alive you idiot!"

"Sakura-chan!!"

"Just because I'm alive doesn't mean you can kiss me! Get your mouth away from me!"

Akina turned her back towards Konoha, dusting her hands slowly. Giving people their lives back using the King of Hell was easier than healing them one by one personally. Walking past the original Team 7, she turned to her ex-Akatsuki companions and quirked a smile.

"Shall we go?"

"What about them?" Itachi furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't want anyone to know.."

She hummed. "Did I? Well, I don't care anymore. They can tell whatever they want. They're free, you all are."

Kisame huffed. "Don't tell me you're going all soft now? What are you planning?"

"Would it help to say I don't care?"

But her eyes twinkled with mischief, Deidara noted. Something happened back in the Tsukuyomi with the blonde brat and her, something she refused to tell them. There was a light shining in her eyes now and she looked well rested. His guess was that she was momentarily transported to a different world. 

Wasn't that what she told them which happened in her visions?

What changed?

"Sure," he conceded hesitantly. "But tell us what's gonna happen next."

"Oh.. well, it's time for war and training arcs," she clapped her hands a little too eagerly and smirked. "I may have new ways to use my rinnegan." 

"Would you not like to visit your teammates?" Itachi questioned softly and a soft look entered her eyes.

"It's fine. Naruto and I already.. talked  quite a bit. I'm leaving Hiruzen's mission," she hummed. "And I'm bringing everything out in the open."

"WHAT?!"

Akina looked up at them with a shrug. "I'm tired of acting like an idiot. When I was in the tsukuyomi, someone knocked some sense into me. Sort of. She made me realize alongside Naruto, how big of a dick I was acting. I met my family."

"Wasn't it controlled by that mask bastard?!" Kisame growled. "What if that's what he wants you to do? Both you and the blonde brat will-"

"I'm not saying I'm returning to Konoha," Akina cut in sternly. "I'm technically still a rogue."

"Maybe we should just leave." Deidara narrowed his eyes at her sudden change. "You're acting a bit chaotic now. We follow you for a reason and now the plan has changed? How do we know if it's even you?"

Itachi squinted his eyes slightly, staring hard towards the destructed rubble of Konoha, watching how small figures were getting up and walking. "Konoha is getting back on tracks."

"Oh, right!" Akina snapped her fingers. "Kakashi-sensei is dead, isn't he? I'm gonna have to revive him. Hold on for a minute."

Turning away from them, Kisame observed as she silently walked a distance away from them - and the still conversing Team 7- before raising her hand and doing hand symbols quickly, her hands almost a blur. 

Ram, ox, monkey, bird, ram, pig  were the only ones he confirmed seeing before she released her hands and brought her right palm down on the ground. A large Gedo statue appeared, with it's mouth wide open and it's eyes the same hue as Akina's purple ones. She patted the statue amiably, and Kisame saw white-bluish ghost like creatures coming out of it's mouth.

Were those souls?

Kisame felt Deidara step closer to him and eyed him strangely.

"Deidara.. you aren't afraid of ghosts, are you?"

"Of course I'm not, un."

Liar, Kisame patronizingly thought in his mind, chuckling slightly as Deidara paled instantly. Then, Itachi broke the spell of silence.

"What do you think happened?"

"I'm not sure if it's something she hid from us or something changed," Deidara fiddled with the ends of his hair, making a face as he saw the split ends and making a mental note to trim his hair. "Dunno which. At this point, all I know is that we have a big war coming up and we're, subjectively, the good guys yeah."

Kisame eyed his dark haired partner, watching the furrow in his forehead increase in size. He raised his hand and hit the back of Itachi's head, making him stumble forward a bit. Normally, such a simple hit wouldn't have effected him but he was still recovering.

"Quit your overthinking Uchiha. Your brat will forgive you soon."

"Will he though?"

"I really wouldn't if I were in his place."

"Deidara, shut your hole!"

"Which one?"

"Oi you guys were Akina-chan's teammates weren't ya?" Naruto walked up to them with an unusually serious face, Sakura and Sasuke trailing behind him. 

"Yeah, what of it kyuubi brat?"

"I knocked some sense into her, dattebayo," he said. "In that world, when I was fighting my other self... Akina-chan met her other self too. The both of them had a conversation and something stuck with her when she came back. She's willing to change her tactics."

"How do we know Madara isn't mind controlling her or some shit?" Kisame furrowed his eyebrows. "She's acting.. strange. No one changed so suddenly."

"Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask," Naruto's eyes shifted to Itachi's. "Sasuke bastard here can't tell if there's something wrong with her, so we wanted to ask you."

"In other words," Deidara snickered, "you wanted a stronger Uchiha's opinion."

"Knock it off Deidara. Stop being an ass and Sasuke, calm down." Sakura reprimanded the two of them.

"I'll see what I can do to help."

xXx

"How are you so emotionally stable?" Akina announced after bringing them back to their makeshift home. She turned around dramatically to face them with a grin. "I'm sure that's what you're thinking."

"Congratulations for reading our mind."

"Thank you, Deidara! Well, to tell the truth.. I already failed Hiruzen's mission by not keeping it a secret with myself," she said. "I have already failed this mission. Now, there are multiple problems to look at." 

The auburn haired girl stopped walking before pointing right at Sasuke. "He is also emotionally stable now. In other words, he's no longer a whimpering, emo child with a brother complex who wants to destroy Konoha."

"A fucking brother complex?!" Sasuke scowled. "It was the opposite of that!"

"By medical terms actually," Sakura interrupted them with a smirk on her face, "a brother complex is a destructive sibling rivalry, in which one of the siblings resents the other for perceived favoritism from a parental figure."

Itachi nodded once. "It is true. You did hate me, Sasuke."

"Shut the fuck up before I kill you guys," he hissed under his breath. "Especially you, Naruto, quit your annoying laugh!"

The blonde raised his hands. "Whatever you say, emo."

Akina giggled. "Now that that's over.. my other self from the tsukuyomi world was well versed with seals. She was a secret ninja being controlled by Madara from a young age but you don't need to know that. Anyway, she was the one who said that I needed to focus on myself mentally before trying to save everyone else."

Naruto's eyes brightened. "Yeah, exactly my point."

"Oh," Deidara sat up straighter. "Did you visit a therapist?"

"Did you like write down your feelings or something?" Kisame asked hopefully. "It helps a lot."

The others turned to stare at him with questioning looks.

He stammered. "I-I've heard about it of course! I don't own a fucking diary or any of that girly shit."

Sakura shook her head before smiling. "I'm glad you're thinking rationally. Just know that we're here to talk and listen to you. Did you perhaps vent it out to your other self?"

"Neither of the above!" Akina gloated. "I decided to shove it down and address it for another day!"

"YOU DAMN IDIOT!" they raged.

Itachi held his head in his hands. 

She dodged the kunai aimed at her from Naruto. "Now now," she gulped nervously, "my feelings are bottled inside me in a seal and thrown away. It's like separating my Uchiha from the Senju side just like when I was a kid."

"Wait," Deidara faltered, "doesn't that mean you can't use the rinnegan anymore? Your blood isn't mixing."

A tense silence followed after his question and Akina smiled sadly before nodding.

"Yeah. I gave up my rinnegan. Ever since my seal weakened and the Uchiha blood mixed, I've been nothing but a ball of negativity. I have no clue how those two handle it-" she said, pointing at Itachi and Sasuke meaningfully, "- but I clearly am not that mentally powerful. Uchiha blood makes the emotions go to extreme for unlocking the sharingan. While the sharingan lies dormant inside me, a power to never come out, the emotional baggage still remains inside me."

"So, your emotions went away just like that?" Naruto scoffed disbelievingly.

"It didn't go away. I calmed down."

Naruto scratched his head. "I dunno.. seems pretty confusing to me."

"That's because the author hasn't uploaded for ages and her readers have forgotten what has transpired in the story," Akina told wearily. "What a lazy asshole, telling her readers to go reread.."

"Author? Story? What?"

"What?"

"What?"

"Ignore her," Itachi sighed. "She gets like that sometimes."

Kisame got up from his seat, unable to sit down calmly. "Okay, so.. now what?"

"What else?" Sasuke turned to look towards the ex-Akatsuki member. "Now, we train and manipulate the Great Nations as well as the remnants of the Akatsuki."

Akina made finger guns at Sasuke. "Bingo! The Uchiha finally used his brain for once."

"I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD-"

"Oops."

A/N here.

It's been literal months since I updated, I'm aware. I don't even know where to begin. 

First of all, I deeply apologize for being inactive. I simply am not a part of the Naruto fandom anymore. I do not believe my writing is good enough either. The more I see it, the more I think it's utter trash.

I've started another fanfiction - Haikyuu fandom - and my time and energy goes for that book more. 

Thinking your book is trash is a major loss of motivation. I literally have no inspiration whatsoever. 

With that being said, I will try and finish Saisei within the next ten chapters. I was aiming for at least a 100 chapters, but that seems impossible now. 

I did promise you guys I won't give up on this WIP (work in progress).. and I will be sticking to that. I don't have a clear schedule as to when I'll update either.

I started writing this at the end of eleventh grade and now here I am, entering college with my exams right around the corner. Time sure flies.

I could've done so, so much more better with Saisei. I could've done so much more with Akina. For me, Akina is a character I've barely explored. She has the potential to be more. I failed in that aspect. If I could, I would rewrite this entire book.

For now, I'm trying to salvage whatever I have. I can only learn from the mistakes here. 

For those of you who have supported the book throughout, thank you.

I won't rest until I completely finish this. Updates will be slow.

Thank you for being so patient with Saisei and giving me and this book a chance.

Also, I realized that I stopped commenting and replying to you guys. It's just that I'm so busy and I get at least 100 notifs everyday - makes it hard. But I'll try.

Q. How are you guys holding up? I hope the covid situation wherever you are from isn't too bad! 

~Blue