23 Chapter 22: Assassin

~ time skip, 1 year after Sasuke left village~

I finally have reached a point where I cannot make plans on my own anymore. There are certain events I can't plot a way around. I thought for months about it, and decided on two people to tell my truth to. So, I set up a meeting with them. It had to be somewhere discreet, where no one could overhear, so I made it be in the gorge where I had earned my fans, by the waterfall so it can drown out our voices.

"Thank you for meeting me here. I realize my request was cryptic, but I needed privacy before I told you." I tell them both.

"What is this about, Ami?" Tsunade asks me seriously.

"No one can hear us. We made sure of it, like you requested." Kakashi says. On the safe side, I activate my eyes. I now have the longest range of vision a Hyuga has, at around 20 kilometers, but I know I can improve it even more in time. I'm only 15, I still have room to improve and grow.

"Good." I say, not seeing anyone around us in the immediate area. "I am going to tell you both a hard truth. It will benefit the village greatly, but you will both see me differently. It's a risk, but I have hit a wall and will need help in the near future, so I am telling you. I just need your absolute word that what I say be taken seriously, and never be repeated." I tell them seriously, looking them dead in the eye.

"I agree." They both reply seriously.

And so, I told them. I told them about being resurrected, about Death, and about the story plot. When they finally calmed down and I could see they believed me, I went on to explain everything I could remember about the Shippuden series of events. I made a few demands, including that I will be on any mission where Asuma and Shikamaru go to a temple, absolutely without question. 

I also requested I receive more training, since I feel like I've hit a plateau, on a specialized method so I can be stronger. Kakashi agreed to make me as his direct apprentice, since his whole team is off studying under the Sannin. He vowed to train me rigorously, and I told him to not hold back. Tsunade put us as a two man squad, and we were to specialize in assassination missions. It tied in best to my other demand, which was for knowledge. 

I needed to know more about reanimation, but I can't learn more in the village. Assassination missions send us out far and wide, and usually to heavily secured places with valuable information. Our team would be secret, and our missions classified. I requested it that way, not wanting Neji to worry about me on dangerous missions. Kakashi and I were basically going to become ANBU, and we even wore masks too. Tsunade offered me one, but I chose to wear the one I took from the blacksmith years ago, the fox half mask. It meant more to me anyway, it was when I earned my fans, and earned respect.

"Kakashi, there is something more, that you specifically need to know. And it will not be easy to hear, so I saved it until the end." I say after getting the bulk of the information out. We've been here for hours, them asking questions as I explained. "It's about a member of the Akatsuki, Tobi. He is not really Tobi, nor is he Madara Uchiha like he will claim to be when he declares war on the five nations. He is actually... He's Obito Uchiha."

"What?! That's impossible, I watched him die." He disagrees with me immediately.

"You watched him get crushed, yes, but his body was found and saved by Zetsu and the real Madara, who was alive still. Obito was saved, his body fused to a Zetsu and he learned to live again. However, before he was done healing, he witnessed something awful that made him snap and go crazy and vindictive." I look him dead in the eye, "He was there when you put your Chidori through Rin's heart."

"No..." he breaths out in disbelief.

"Yes. And he didn't try and find out why you killed her, he just let the hatred grow. In his eyes, his rival/best friend just killed the girl he loved. It is a large driving factor for why he hates everyone at this point. He was the one who released the nine tails on the village 14 years ago. He secretly formed the Akatsuki, letting Nagato think he is the actual leader. He was even there during the Uchiha massacre, joining Itachi in killing everyone. He convinced Itachi to join the Akatsuki as well. I'm sorry, but your old friend is very central to a lot of coming problems." I tell him with sadness, watching his face crumble as I speak.

"So he needs to be killed... again." He says after a while.

"Maybe. In the story, he feels regret and tried to redeem himself towards the end of the war, but it's too late and Zetsu betrays him. Maybe if knowing now, if being able to try earlier to stop him, maybe he can still change. But it will have to be by you. You need to train with his Sharingan eye you have, make it even stronger than you ever have." I tell him.

Tsunade asked more questions about plans to prevent the destruction of the city and how to avoid sending out ninja on certain missions, like Jiraiya's when he dies. Since we already have the info he dies for, he no longer has to go. I told them all about Danzo as well, so Tsunade can be more on guard or even just kill him herself if the opportunity arises. I want Sasuke to do it, but I'm sure he won't mind eventually if someone else kills Danzo first.

~ time skip, 1 year later ~

Training alongside Kakashi has been very rewarding. He has helped me learn to use my water release, and how to effectively use it with my new scythe. On most our assassination missions, I tried to only use it and not any other weapon, that way I can become proficient at it as I am with my others. There were several mission where I was surrounded by enemies, and the scythe is perfect for that when I'm tired and low on chakra. Thanks to all my years of using weights with Guy Sensei, my strength is incredible, and I can swing the scythe effortlessly, and it swipes through an enemy easily. When I add water release to the scythe, it extends the reach of the blade and makes it heavier, so it's almost like being hit with a large mallet that also slices. I can even use my wind style with it, and it makes it sharper as I cut. I started to grow a name for myself, with the only identifiable parts of me being the white eyes that can be seen through my decorative fox mask and my large scythe.

When we are on missions where stealth is needed instead of power, that is where I excel with my wind style. Kakashi and I worked out a more effective way to keep my arrow shots silent. Previously, the wind around them would sound like a whistle, and if an enemy is fast enough, they could react when they hear it and dodge. Kakashi actually had the idea to add a third layer of wind around the arrow head, one that contained the noise. He helped me create a new wind jutsu that I can use at the time of the shot to create that third wind layer. It made the force a little less deadly, but actually improved the accuracy and the range. The third layer of wind basically worked to contain the arrow in its own little bubble, which really helped me become one hell of a sniper.

On one of our missions, it took us to a recently abandoned hideout of Orochimaru's. There were still a few of his underlings staying there, but as we infiltrated, we couldn't see any signs of the snake or of Sasuke. After we took out those left behind, we managed to gather several useful bits of information, one of which was Orochimaru's own notes on the Reanimation jutsu. He was so obsessed with immortality, he was using different methods to find a way to permanently bring someone back from the dead. In his notes, he found one way to complete the reanimation. A live sacrifice could be used to transfer the dead persons reanimated soul into the sacrifices still living body through a ritual, though it was incomplete. I made sure to take this, because when the war comes, there may be a few people I can try and give a second chance to.

Neji had taken to spending his free time more with Hinata, since I'm gone so often with Kakashi, and has taken over training her. He still feels really guilty about how he acted with her at the Chuunin exams and he's trying to make up for it by helping her get better and stronger. I'm proud of him, he really stepped out of his old comfort zone. He's calmed down immensely since the exams, especially after getting the rank of Chuunin himself. In my own down time if Neji is not there on his missions, I have branched out even more, and have become friends with more members of the village. 

I went on a mission with Ino-Shika-Cho and got to see how well they worked together and bonded more with Ino and Choji. I also went on a random mission with Sakura and Tenten and got to know those two a bit better. Sakura is much less annoying when Sasuke isn't around, and she's matured and started to become a better ninja overall, so it was nice working with her. I got sent once on a scouting mission with Shino and Kiba, Hinata was unavailable so I was filling in her place on her old team. We all worked efficiently together, and though Shino still creeps me out, he is great to work with even if he doesn't have a big personality. I go on more missions with Shirotsu than with anyone else when I'm in the village, probably because we are both great scouts with our unique skills, so he has become one of my closer friends. I never thought I would end up bonding with him, but he has a great dry and dark sense of humor that I really enjoy and we found many things we have in common.

Neji and I, when we are both home together and not on missions, have been training hard for the Jonin exams. The requirements to qualify for the exam are to have been a Chuunin a minimum of one year, to have two different nature releases, and to have completed a certain number of missions. The exams themselves are held only for their respective villages, and not amongst competing nations. They are also all completed individually, there are no teams to work with. This is because Jonin's must often work alone on their missions, or else lead a team of newer shinobi and be a team leader. 

About a year after Neji made Chuunin, we both had learned and mastered two nature releases. I had my wind and water, and he had learned his fire nature along with water nature, which was also his second just like mine. We learned many water techniques together, since we were on even playing fields with that, even if it was our weaker nature.

~ time skip 9 months later ~

When Neji and I took the Jonin exam, it was a week-long survival challenge, far outside of our village. Over the years, Neji and I had slowly started to look less identical, and it had started to make us both sad. Our faces were still incredibly similar, however my face had narrowed slightly more than his. My body developed to being a very easily identifiable female with my extreme curves, and my height stopped growing around age 16. Neji on the other hand kept sprouting up, and now stood several inches taller than me, and he broadened out in the shoulder and chest. He was becoming a very handsome young man, while I was turning into quite a beauty. 

Before the Jonin exams though, he and I came to a compromise. Since we no longer looked exactly the same, though we still had incredibly close features, we decided to both change our clothes to match one another. He compromised and switched to wearing a white and black yukata, close to my kimono style I always wore, and I compromised to no longer wear my teal color, and switched to match his white and black color scheme. We liked that we now resembled each other once again, and were proud when we stepped into our exams like that. Guy Sensei had dramatically cried when he saw us like that, and Lee had joined in with him.

Though Neji and I weren't supposed to work together during the exam, we still did at times, teaming up to take down the instructors whose jobs it was to attack us, testing our skills. We each excelled through the exam, and both of us became Jonin at the same time at the age of 16, almost 17.

I had been surprised to see Shirotsu also took the exam with us. He and I had worked together frequently in the past, and have formed a good friendship with each other. He also managed to pass the exams, which was great for him since his goal was to be a Jonin leader of a genin squad. He and I had talked about that in the past, and he says he really likes to teach and guide, so that's his goal to be a team leader.

Neji and I finally managed to master our combination Twin Air Vacuum with our elements infused into it. The attack, when used at full power, could only be described as a missile bomb. My wind acts to strengthen his fire while his precision works to contain my explosion. We can use to do a very strong, mid to long range missile strike attack that has a contained but deadly fiery explosion once it reaches its mark. We named our new move Twin Missile Inferno, and I think it will come in handy during the war.

Kakashi and I spent a lot more time on our missions together in the few months after I made Jonin. We even had a two month long mission to a far off land, which we covertly did research on. We were trying to find all the Uchiha clan hideouts, to find the information about the Otsutsuki clan. Along our journey, we learned about Kaguya Otsutsuki when we found an old shrine to her. We learned about her children, her twin sons, and about how they sealed her away on the moon. It was interesting getting to see where the Hyuga clan got its start, since the Byakugan was the eye trait of the Otsutsuki clan. 

While we didn't necessarily learn anything useful on how to prevent her resurrection, we did learn how to seal her away if she does escape, which we think a modified version can be used to seal away Black Zetsu if we can get him before he resurrects Kaguya in the war. I had told Kakashi and Tsunade about how Naruto and Sasuke were the reincarnations of two ancient beings and that they will be the ones to seal Kaguya away, but my own memory was limited on the 'how', so visiting this temple was well worth the trip.

My vow for the 'Shippuden' time frame of my life here is I am going to change a lot more fates than I did during the past. I am not going to idly sit by and allow good people to get hurt if I have the power to stop it. I know it will be a lot of hard work, but to save my friends lives, it will all be worth it.