"Water Style: Three Hundred Birds of Love!"
Mito ended her hand seals with the dog seal and concentrated as she created three hundred doves from the water in the river.
She grinned as she tried to make them fly and flap their wings, but was stunned when she suddenly watched them explode.
"Why?" She asked Enma, who was standing by her side.
"You lost your concentration." He said and walked towards the group, who were sitting around a campfire now, enjoying their meals.
Mito wanted to try again, but since he had already taught her the Jutsu, she followed him and sat down to eat.
When they finally left the Training field, it was past 8 pm, and one by one they dropped everyone home, starting from the closet ones.
They parted ways after reaching the Central Junction, and only the Uchiha and Uzumaki followed Mito to the Hokage Residence.
The girl invited them inside for tea, but they politely refused and then headed back home.
Hiyori, tired after an exciting day, made Enma pick her up and fell asleep in his arms.
"Sweet dreams."
Izumi froze when she heard Enma wish both Akane and Sasuke and glanced at him as he walked inside the Uzumaki Compound with his siblings.
She furrowed her brows, but then steeled her heart, putting her trust in him.
After freshening up and sitting down with her mother for some tea, giving her a brief account of everything that transpired in the last mission, she lost herself to her thoughts.
Hazuki watched her daughter for some time and poured herself a second cup.
"Do you like Enma?" She lightly asked and smiled when her daughter absently nodded her head.
It took her a few seconds to realise what her mother had just asked, and then she panicked when she saw the amused smile that Hazuki was wearing.
"Not in the sense!" She clarified.
"Of course. He is not a handsome boy." Her mother nodded.
"What?" Izumi confusedly looked at her. "You don't have some weird sense of beauty, do you, Mama?"
"What does that mean?"
"You really don't think he is handsome?" She asked, furrowing her brows, and Hazuki smiled.
"Why? Do you think he is handsome?"
"Not in that sense!!" She blushed, now understanding that her mother was pulling her leg.
"There is no second sense when you find someone beautiful or handsome."
"Hmph!" She puffed up her cheeks and pouted.
She then remembered the time she had spent with the Uzumaki. Their interactions, his trust in her, and his strength and care...
Her cheeks warmed up and little, and she panicked when she saw her mother's Sharingan active.
"What are you doing?!"
"Just capturing your cute look in my memory." She playfully said and poured her daughter some tea.
"He's younger than me!"
"Oh? Is that an issue?" She smiled, and her daughter turned her face away. "Drink."
Izumi did not disobey when she received the order from her mother. She silently picked up the cup and sipped on the tea, which was quite refreshing and warm.
"Does he care for you?"
"Mama!" She complained and blushed even more when Hazuki started giggling.
"Just so you know. I would never object to it if you decide to marry him." She said, and Izumi lowered her head and blushed hard.
"Please, stop talking about it."
"Fine. Tell me about his fight with Han. How did he kill him?" She curiously asked.
"He is strong, abnormally strong, and every Jutsu he performs sets him in a league of his own. He's... a genius, and then he has his monstrously large Chakra Reserves." She reverently said. "It's quite terrifying because his Chakra Pool even surpasses that of the Tailed Beasts. He creates Elemental Shadow Clones for fun, and his Battle IQ gives me chills."
"Oh?"
Izumi nodded her head and clenched her fists.
"He fought Rokubi, in the sea, on his own. Not the Jinchuriki, but Rokubi after Utakata lost consciousness and the Tailed Beast took over..."
At her words, Hazuki froze.
"He captured the Jinchuriki, and he was tired when Han attacked him from behind, using his Boiling Chakra to amplify his speed and strength, and Enma reacted in time and unleashed his Chakra Chains, protecting himself." Her eyes suddenly turned cold, and the Uchiha Matriarch narrowed her eyes too. "He gave Han and the rest a chance to leave, but they wanted to take the opportunity and kill him, thinking he was tired enough. When they refused and did not take his warning seriously, he killed one of their Jonins with his Shadow Clone, who was hiding in the sand, and then engaged the Jinchuriki of the Five Tails on his own..."
"You did not help?"
"I was protecting the Tsuchigumo girl, and he had signalled to me to stay out of the battle." She sighed. "He overwhelmed Han at one point with his speed and strength, but then the Jinchuriki entered his Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak Mode with all five tails and overpowered him... The power Five Tails gives its Jinchuriki with the Chakra Boil is ridiculous..."
Hearing her daughter trail off, she frowned.
"Afterwards, Han unleashed the Mystical Steam of Five Tails, which steals strength, caging them in a cloud of it, but Enma suddenly did something to him that briefly froze him, giving him the opportunity to lock him with his Chakra Chains. He then used his Chidori, which was crimson coloured just like his Lightning Chakra Cloak... Iwa Shinobi wanted to charge at him, but I stepped in at his signal. He, however, forbade me from killing any of them and allowed them to leave."
"You wanted to kill them?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because they wanted to kill him." She coldly said, and then furrowed her brows and took a deep breath.
She had not even realised when she had activated her Sharingan, and Hazuki intently looked at her daughter, observing her every reaction.
It took her a couple of minutes to calm down, and then she brightly smiled.
"He gave me the Snake Contract," She happily revealed, and watching the surprise on her mother's face, she quickly summoned a small and beautiful white snake, who slithered inside her sleeve.
"You intend to go through the Sage Training?"
"I do, but Enma told me not to go through it right now. He wants me to double my Chakra Reserves first. High Chakra reserves and High Chakra Control are necessary to become a Perfect Sage."
"Your Chakra Reserves are already very high."
"I can go through it right now, but he said it will be easier with even bigger Chakra Reserves. Snake Sage is moody. She won't help me twice, so, I will have only one chance to master it."
"Oh..." Hazuki nodded her head and then frowned. "Mitarashi Anko is a Sage now. A Perfect Sage. Her Chakra Reserves have tripled in just a few months."
"I see." Izumi narrowed her eyes.
"You can ask her for advice."
Event though she was hesitant about asking a stranger for advice, she still nodded her head.
On the other side, Sasuke was going through the worst night of his life.
Bodies were littered all around him, and a masked man had stabbed Enma, who was fighting Itachi, in the back with a wooden stake.
"Silly Little Brother, you are too weak..." he heard Itachi look at him and smile, and then Sasuke fell into a Genjutsu and saw how his rogue brother killed Akane, Izumi, Hazuki, Karin, and even little Arashi and Hiyori in their sleep.
"Now all your distractions are gone."
The sinister words entered his ears, breaking him out of the Genjutsu, and then he watched as the masked man decapitated Enma...
"I will kill you.... I will kill you!!" He screamed and tried to get up, but there was no strength left in his body after the battle he just had.
Suddenly, a body dropped in front of him, and when he looked down, more tears streamed out of his eyes.
His beloved Akane, lifeless, and with a hole in her chest. He touched her face with his trembling hands, and the cold touch of her skin made him let out a loud wail.
He looked towards his brother, who was leaving, carrying Enma's head in his left hand.
"No... no... no!!!"
He screamed, and his throat burned, and he could taste his own blood in his mouth.
His vision, however, suddenly changed, and he felt raw power course through him.
He wanted nothing but to burn the entire world down, and it was then that everything blurred and he shot up on his bed, gasping for breath and sweating all over.
At the same time, inside the next room, Akane was going through a nightmare as well.
Everyone she cared for was dead, and Sasuke, who was fighting Itachi and that masked man all alone, was suddenly stabbed in the back by a wooden stake, and then the rogue Uchiha decapitated her beloved and walked away with his head as a trophy.
She too was dying, getting cold, lying in the pool of her blood, and warm tears rolled down the corners of her eyes.
Akane had never hated someone so much in her life, but in her dying moments, she really wanted destroy the two people who had killed everyone she loved in her life. And she wanted to destroy them over and over again...
Suddenly, she felt the power she desired coursing through her, and just when she was about to use it, her vision blurred and she shot up on her bed, gasping for breath, crying, and sweating all over.
She froze when the door of the door was suddenly pushed open and she saw Sasuke standing there with tears in his eyes that were now like lotus flowers, it was Sharingan, but the colours were inverted...
"Sasuke..."
"Akane..."
"Your eyes..." they whispered in unison and fell into a trance.
The two tensed you when they heard footsteps, and Sasuke was relieved when he saw that the two coming over were Izumi and Hazuki.
The two ladies froze when the moment they saw his eyes, but the Uchiha Matriarch immediately rushed forward and hugged him.
"What's wrong, Child? What happened?" She asked, but then froze again when she saw Akane sitting in her bed, and her eyes, that had a pentagram shape.
Izumi walked past them and quickly hugged her little sister, who broke in tears in her arms, and Sasuke started sobbing as well.
"What happened?" Hazuki's voice trembled as she asked the question.
"Nothing..." the boy whispered and separated from her arms before wiping his tears, but he failed to hold them back.
Hazuki pulled him back in a hug and gently stroked his head.
"It's okay. We are here..."
Sasuke nodded to her words and hugged her back, holding her as if his life depended on it.
A while later, they were sitting inside the tea room, and both Sasuke and Akane were wrapped in shawls as they drank their tea.
Their eyes were still lost, and Izumi, seeing them behave like this, sighed.
"It was just a nightmare." She gently said, and they nodded their heads. "And congratulations on awakening your Mangekyo Sharingan all thanks to it."
They froze at her words, and Sasuke furrowed his brows.
"Did you do it?" He asked.
"What?" Izumi frowned.
"That nightmare. It was not a dream. It felt real..." he whispered and raised his head to meet her eyes. "And for Akane to have a similar nightmare, on the same night. Don't you think it is too much of a coincidence?"
Hazuki frowned at his words and watched her daughter lower her eyes.
"Would you hate me if I said that I did it to help you awaken those eyes without having to go through a real loss?" she whispered, and both Sasuke and Akane surprisedly looked at her.
"I am mad, sure, but no, I don't hate you. Just don't do it again." He sighed and lowered his head. "And thank you."
Akane glared at her sister, but then put her cup down.
"You know I never desired these eyes." She coldly said, and watched her sister flinch. "But Izumi, I could never hate you. No matter what you do to me. However, I am very upset that you made me go though such a terrible illusion. Don't you ever do that to me again!"
"I won't." She shook her head. "Because I was not the one who did it."
The two froze and instinctively turned to look at Hazuki, who shook her head.
"It was Enma," Izumi revealed. "He said you would need these eyes if you wish to stand a chance against your brother..."
"He's not my brother." Sasuke coldly said. "He stopped being my brother the day he killed my parents."
She nodded her head to his words and clenched her fists.
Seeing how quiet they had all become, Sasuke sighed, and then put the cup down and closed his eyes.
"You are not mad at me, are you?"
They all froze when they heard the voice, and when they looked at the door, they found Enma leaning against it with his hands folded on his chest.
Sasuke glared his way and then charged right at the Uzumaki...