Akari panted in exhaustion as she leapt from branch to branch, newly unlocked Sharingan darting back and forth as her eyes searched for any threats. Even if she knew there was unlikely to be any this deep into Fire Country. In her exhausted state however, she decided not to risk it.

She had been tree hopping for nearly three days with barely any break and she was starting to feel it, her legs were screaming and even her impressive chakra stores were basically gone. But she couldn't stop now, not when she was so close to Konoha, so close to home.

She still wasn't sure how the mission had gone so wrong. It was supposed to be a simple C rank, something simple as a celebration for her making Chunin. All they had to do was deliver a scroll to a client in the Land of Forests, eliminate some bandits, and come home to collect their pay. That was it. But instead, her team was ambushed and slaughtered to the last man. All gone except for her.

Akari felt tears roll down her face as she recalled the screams of pain her teammates made as they were brutalized by the mist nin. The desperate last stand of her sensei and the nin who survived and pursued her in spite of it. She herself had just barely escaped using his sacrafice as a distraction. Even then she hadn't escaped unscathed, her arm getting caught in a water prison by one especially aware kunoichi before Akari put a kunai through her skull.

The Chunin paused in her tree hopping to catch her breath for the first time in several hours. Leaning back against the rough bark of one of the many large trees that made up the forests outside of Konoha, she deactivated her Sharingan and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths in an attempt to keep from breaking down. Her body was screaming at her to stop, to rest. But she knew if she rested now she was very unlikely to wake up, especially with her wounds.

Akari looked down at the tattered remains of her left arm, the whirling insides of the water prison it had been caught in nearly tearing it to shreds. 'They'll have to amputate it,' her exhausted mind told her. 'with how long I've gone without medical attention, it's almost definitely infected.' She had done the best she could to dress it in the field, but due to the fact that she had lost her tool pouch in the battle with the Mist ninja it had basically amounted to wrapping it in her shirt sleeve to stem the bleeding.

Deciding she had taken a long enough break, Akari stood up and channeled a tiny portion of her still dwindling chakra reserves to her legs and leapt forward to the tree in front of her. One branch at a time, she made her way home.

----------------------------------------

Izumo sighed in depression. It was a lovely day, light clouds, nice breeze, perfect conditions for a nap. Only this time he couldn't sleep as he usually would have when on gate duty. With recent events, village security was at an all time high and that meant there were anbu nearly everywhere especially around the main gate. Even his patented 'sleep while looking awake' technique wouldn't work here, they'd see through him in an instant.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

He sighed again, "What a drag." His best friend and partner looked over at him from where he sat twirling a kunai around his index finger.

"What, are you a Nara now?" Kotetsu joked, "I know you're lazy, but I didn't think you were that lazy." He stopped twirling the kunai and looked at Izumo with a smirk, "Since you're so bored let's play a game. How about Catch the Kunai, first one to drop it loses!" He threw it at Izumo blade first.

Leaning his head to the side and catching the kunai as it passed, Izumo grinned, "You're on! Loser has to pay for lunch!" He twirled it briefly around his finger before launching it at Kotetsu who mimicked his action and caught it before throwing it back. This continued for several minutes until finally, the kunai passed through Kotetsu's fingers as he went to catch it before going on and impacting the wall behind him with a loud 'Thunk'.

"Shit!" Kotetsu cursed, as he stood from his chair to retrieve the kunai. "That was totally cheating dude, we didn't say we could use chakra!"

"We never said we couldn't." Izumo gloated, leaning back in his chair, "I was just waiting to see how long it would take you to catch on." He knew Kotetsu was a shitty sensor so he had been slowly adding chakra to his throws to increase their speed before suddenly increasing it drastically on that last throw. Kotetsu had practically handed him that win, and victory was sweet. "So for lunch I was thinking that new dango place that just opened up off Hokage avenue…. Dude, you listening?"

Izumo turned around to look at his friend only to find him staring at something down the road. Turning to see what had gotten him so spooked, Izumo spotted a figure slowly shambling towards them. Being a much better sensor than his best friend, Izumo was able to tell the figure barely had enough chakra to keep them standing, much less cast jutsu so he decided to let them approach the gate.

As the figure got closer, their form slowly became clearer. It was a young girl, around 16 if he had to guess. Raven hair dirtied by blood, had fallen out of its ponytail to come to rest on either side of a pale face accented by drooping charcoal black eyes. An earring hung from one ear while its partner appeared to have been forcibly removed if the blood making its way down the girl's jawline was any indication.

She was wearing black long sleeve shirt obscured by a torn Chunin vest, one of the sleeves appeared to have been ripped off and used as a makeshift tourniquet on the bloody arm that hung limply by her side. Judging by the amount of chakra she had left and the bags under her eyes, Izumo guessed she hadn't slept in at least three days. He wasn't really sure how she was still standing.

The most important feature however, was the scuffed metal band bearing the leaf insignia that hung loosely around her neck marking her as a friend. So he felt confident enough to ask, "Name, Rank, and Registration number please."

Then the girl spoke and Izumo felt his breath leave his body.

"Akari Uchiha, Chunin, 9591418" She said, clearly trying to keep her voice strong in spite of her condition. "I would like to report a failed mission, numerous casualties."

The clearing was silent for a moment, before several ANBU dropped down from wherever they had been hiding to surround the Uchiha. "Akari Uchiha," the leader spoke, a monkey mask obscuring his features, "You will come with us for questioning about your involvement in the Uchiha massacre."

Akari's eyes widened and she went to speak, but before she could get a word out her eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted into the arms of the anbu member that darted forward to catch her. They then disappeared, taking the Uchiha with them.

Izumo stared at where they had been for a moment before he spoke, "Shit."

"Yeah," Kotetsu agreed, "Shit."