Akashi's first day in Konoha had been more eventful than he had initially thought.
He had spent it with his mother and aunt, great aunt.
The old woman had more energy than he had thought, even though he looked like a six-year-old she could pick him up like he weighed nothing, or maybe it was because she was as excited as them to meet another Uzumaki in Konoha, which was indeed quite rare as the Uzumaki tended to remain in the safety of Uzushiogakure.
He also had to admit that he had a great time with the old woman; it was nice to be with someone genuinely happy to spend time with him and to be spoiled by her.
In Uzushio, the people there tended to be more on guard against him and his mother; even those who wanted to be close to them were doing so with reservation to not be ostracized by the other villagers.
Here in Konoha, it was not the case, and he knew that it was because of Mito Uzumaki; with the old woman by their side, the initial caution was quickly replaced by friendliness.
"It was nice,"
Akashi had a wide smile on their face as he reminisced about the previous day. It was a good day, and he hoped that he would have a few more days like that, but it didn't make him forget where he was.
His gaze abruptly turned to his left and smiled brightly before walking toward the stand and buying all the food he could transport
"I won't I Konoha here for long. I need to test what kind of food this village has,"
With a mutton skewer in his mouth, he made his way further into the village.
"For a second I thought that he had noticed us!"
A ninja with a mask hidden in the shadow of the village said to his partner
"Don't be ridiculous, he is four years old, even though he is a monster we have been trained to trick and evade the perception of sensors, even of Uzumaki,"
Confident in their abilities they continued to follow the young boy
'I guess not those with the mind eyes or a four-year-old like me wouldn't have noticed you,'
Akashi thought before he quickly realized that he was an anomaly even among Uzumaki. After all, he was able to use the mind eye with his eyes open while taking a stroll around the village.
Even his mother Kana who knew his frightening potential was baffled when she realized it, there is a reason that Uzumaki and even the Hyuga have to stay completely focused when they expend their sense or zoom on one particular point, it is because the information received is above what a normal is calibrated for, at the slightest distraction you can lose all focus and some even suffered an extremely painful overload.
Some ninjas described that feeling as having fire poured into their brains and or eyes.
So when Kana learned what Akashi was doing, she was terrified for an instant until he realized that he was doing it instinctively without any trouble. He ended up chalking it up to his mixt lineage or something to do with yin and yang.
Akashi continued to observe the ninjas following him in the shadows.
He could feel some Anbu that he had felt in the office of the Hokage.
Senju ninjas followed him, probably under orders of his grand-aunt; the massive yang energy in them told them away.
Two other groups were following him, and from one of them, he could feel the conflicted feeling toward him, and the unnatural amount of yin energy allowed him to determine that they were Uchiha.
And finally, the last group, Akashi, easily identified them as members of the roots sent by Danzo Shimura.
It was easy because this particular group of ninjas seemed like blank paper.
He felt nothing from them, absolutely nothing, no feeling, no desire, no nothing.
He had to admit that he was somewhat afraid of them.
Not just because they were stronger than him but exactly because he felt nothing from them.
His little experience with the mind's eyes showed him that it shouldn't be possible.
Even mere beasts had a will of their own, so seeing humans like that with no will, not feeling, felt deeply wrong to him.
'What the hell did that creep do to them... At least one thing is certain: with all those parties keeping an eye on me, I am as safe as one can be, for now at least, so let's enjoy it while it lasts.'
With that in mind, Akashi continued his walk through the streets of Konoha, from one stand to another, to one eatery to another, buying clothes, food, and souvenirs.
In a tree, the ambu tasked to keep an eye on Akashi heard one of their say in a barely audible voice
"Six months!"
"What did you say!?"
One of his masked comrades asked
"Six months... he spent in a few hours what I make in six months, how is he that fucking rich?!"
One of the ninjas following Akashi perched on another tree asked companions.
His mask hid his expression, but from his tone, they could feel his jealousy and bitterness.
His comrade could understand his complicated mood; after all, they were all in the same boat.
After a while one of them finally said
"He is a prince; we are ninjas, we are fundamentally different. Now stop whining and stay focused!"
The leader said sternly
"Yes boss,"
...
While Akashi was walking through the streets of Konoha as he owned them, his mother, Kana Uzumki, walked into the compound of the Uchiha clan.
As she walked into the Uchiha compound, Kana was aware of the gazes on her, opened and hidden.
The Uchiha around her eyes her with suspicions, while the other clans of the village, as well as those of the leaders of the village itself, had their eyes on her.
After all, they all knew the relations between her and the son of the second elder of the Uchiha.
They knew that he never really approved of their relationship, and the subsequent development that led to the death of his son proved him right.
But they also knew that Akashi could be a link between the Uzumaki and the Uchiha, so they kept an eye on the situations, some due to fear that such an alliance could produce and others due to mere curiosity.
Soon, their curiosity was rewarded because not long after, Kana entered Elder Mikami's estate.
"Booom,"
A massive fireball crashed where she stood.
"Here it goes," one of the old ladies who saw Kana enter said with a deep and sad sigh.
"What a warm welcome!"
"Way to welcome his daughter-in-law."
"Well, she deserves it,"
"Were you expecting something else? You know the old man, you shouldn't be surprised." One of her friends said as she looked at the old woman.
Diverse opinions started to flow freely in the street as they looked towards the house.
The moment Kana arrived in Konoha they knew that she would come here sooner or later.
"Yes, I know him. Yet somehow I hope that he would have softened with age, the little Mikado wouldn't have wanted that,"
"Yeah, well it's too late now,"
The old woman said, looking toward the estate where explosions and the sound of fighting were resounding.
In the estate
"You should have stayed hidden on your island with the rest of your treacherous kind. How dare you show yourself in front of me after killing my son,"
An old man with more white hair than black hair on his head appeared in front of Kana.
His eyes seemed as sharp as the sword he was holding; his blazing Sharingan looked at Kana with hatred.
Under that gaze, Kana, who was stronger than the old man, seemed to shrink a little.
There was no fear in her heart; instead, what she felt was shame, a deep feeling of shame overwhelmed her as she looked at him.
"Father… Sir, I - I am sorry, but I…"
"Shut up woman! How dare you call me father, I never agreed to your union with my stupid son,"
The old Mikami said as he propelled himself toward Kana, even at that advanced age, where his body was failing him the old Uchiha was still extremely dangerous
He reappeared in front of Kana as his tanto fell toward her head.
"Clank,"
In an instant, an adamantine chain shouted out of Kana's right palm; grabbing it with her left palm, she used the chains to stop the attack of the old Uchiha from splitting her head open.
"What did you say when I told you that you shouldn't be together. When I told you about the story of our two families… I told you that you won't be happy together, that there is hardly any happy ending in the ninja world, and that your stupid rebellion will end badly, what did you say,"
The old man said, looking her in the eyes as he slowly used the flowing swordsmanship of the Uchiha clan, attacking Kana from all sides and forcing her to jump away to make distance between them.
"I am sorry, fath… Sir, you have every right to hate me but…"
"What did you say?"
He repeated, anger radiating from his old and raspy voice.
"I say, that it will be alright. That I will protect him if need be,"
She replied in a broken and barely audible tone
"That's tight."
He replied before launching Kunai toward Kana, who blocked all her escape routes.
"Clank, clank, clank…"
Using her chain, she deflected all the kunai before another massive fireball crashed where she was standing.
Jumping out of the fire Kana coughed.
Part of her clothes had been burned, exposing her scorched skin and leaving her in a somewhat haggard situation.
'He put something in that fire,' she remarked when she noticed that her injuries were not instantaneously healing as usual.
But she didn't have the time to think about that as she was forced to jump away by the slash of the tanto that nearly cut her neck off.
"Not only you didn't protect him, you didn't even dare to face me after his death… you sent one of your lackeys to bring him in a body bag."
The old man said as he continued his relentless attacks on Kana who continued to evade and parry his attacks.
The more time passes, the more Kana's situation worsens as she receives more and more injuries.
Even though she was at a disadvantage in this fight, it wasn't because Mikami was stronger than Kana; far from it, the truth was much more simple.
She didn't want to fight the old man. She had no desire to inflict him any harm, and that was the problem because even though she was far stronger than him, Mikami was a very skilled ninja with years of experience, and any mistake could cost her her life.
At his age, the old Uchiha was not as powerful as he used to be in his youth.
His speed, strength, and chakra were not as good as they used to be, but even though his body was not moving as well as in his youth, he was still a deadly opponent with years of experience.
The multiple injuries on Kana's body were proof of it.
At every contact, she had to move with caution, or she risked sustaining fatal injury.
"You have every right to want me dead, I deserve it just for my arrogance, but I can't just die like that, I at least need to make sure that our child is safe,"
"How dare you!" He growled launching himself toward Kana with more rage and ferocity.
So the two were locked in a deadly dance where Kana was constantly retreating and suffering injuries that would be fatal to anyone else but one of the core members of the Uzumaki clan. While trying to appease the rage of her father-in-law, who was relentless in his assault.
"Boom, boom, boom…"
That day, the sound of explosions and clashes resounded for hours in the Uchiha compound.