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Burdened Soul: Uchiha SI Ch.53
🕑 Added 2025-04-25 19:10:53 +0000 UTCChapter 53
KONAN-The Angel of Death
Peace. That had been the dream when all three of them had set out to form Akatsuki. All three of them had seen the travesty of war, seen the ruin and devastation brought by it firsthand.
Yet they had also seen the compassion, seen it when a shinobi from an enemy nation took them in, raised them, and trained them to be self-sufficient, giving them hope and a dream to chase after.
She, Yahiko, and Nagato formed Akatsuki for that very dream: to gather like-minded people and bring them together to establish peace in Ame and then the rest of the world.
Yet, it was too big a dream for the three of them. They had known that this journey would not be easy, that many would stand against them, preferring to maintain the status quo that allowed them to maintain power and exploit all those under them.
In their naivety, they believed that they could change such people, make these monsters human again, yet they were wrong. In the end, this naivety cost both Nagato and Yahiko their lives.
Hanzo Hattori, and still thinking of that man who drove her mad with rage even years later, the leader of Amegakure had broken the terms and had attacked them during the parlay.
Yahiko and Nagato had tried to stop him, yet despite his age, he was a man of immense prowess. With the support of his armies, he had killed them both, along with a major part of their organization. Yahiko entrusted her with their fate, begging her to run and save as many as she could while they held Hanzo back.
And in one day, Akatsuki had lost both its pillars, and she became the bearer of their dreams, the carrier of their wills.
Yet she was not Yahiko. She was not Nagato, and she could not carry the burden of their dreams. And just as all hope had seemed lost as Danzo’s men cornered them, for a final battle, a savior had come.
The very man who had plucked them from the streets of a war-torn Amegakure and had given them the means to dream. He had come again to give her hope once more as she drowned in a sea of despair and suffering.
“You are late,” she complained, as she stood outside the gates of Konoha. And as Hanzo’s forces took control of all of Ame, the Akatsuki or what little remained of it could not stay there at all.
In the end, Jiraiya-sensei would make them an offer to leave their lands and come to Konoha seeking refuge. It was a big decision, asking them to give up on both their homes and their dreams, yet the only other option was death.
It was a difficult decision, yet in the end, she had decided to take the offer despite the obvious concerns. This was the first time such a thing was happening, and even Hanzo and his men, for all their might Ame could not bear to go against the mighty Konoha and its mighty forces.
The village in question was led by another one of her sensei’s students, a man feared across the continent and the first S-ranked ninja since Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha to gain a ‘Flee on Sight’ order—the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze.
“Time is relative and though I may be late in some ways, I am early in many ways,” the black haired shinobi answered as he slowly walked out the gate, his long black hair tied in an untidy ponytail which reached his back.
His face sharp and young, for he was still into his teens, yet only a fool would mistake him for a young, naive, and weak shinobi—for Izuna Uchiha was many things, but he was not weak.
After the refuge request, Konoha had agreed to their terms but with a big caveat as the Hokage mandated that all of their forces would need to spend sometime on the battlefront against Kirigakure as display of their loyalty.
It was a big ask, one that had caused much strife within their ranks as they felt themselves betrayed, and scared having to fight another war while they had just escaped one back home.
Yet their hands were tied, and the assurance from Jiraiya-sensei made her agree. The Akatsuki disbanded, and they were divided into units that would serve at the front lines against Kiri under the commander of the brigade.
She had decided that she would remain there until all of them had done their necessary year of service at the battlefront, which, given that they were divided into three units of twenty, meant that she would have to spend three years at war.
But Yahiko and Nagato had entrusted her with this, and she would do her best to safeguard it.
“Do not play games with me,” she chided, as Izuna Uchiha smirked.
“You do remember that we are not at war anymore,” he began, and the words made her stop for the circumstances of the last decade had made it so that her mind and body could not comprehend the concept of peace.
“Yes,” she lied, yet she was certain that he saw through it, just as Yahiko and Nagato saw through them.
“Then why did you ignore my message?” he asked as they departed from the village on their mission, an S-ranked mission which somehow reminded her of her own circumstances.
“Konoha is pretty large, and as much as you may think that you have explored it all, there is a lot that is hidden from the normal eye,” and his offer had been tempting.
Yet in the end, she had denied him. For though Yahiko and Nagato may have passed on their wills to her, she could not carry their burden. She could not carry it forward, but the fates acted in strange ways.
And just as they took their light from her, they gave her a new light. Another person who embodied their very dream, who dreamt and aspired for a peaceful world, just as Nagato and Yahiko did.
He was the true carrier of their will, the one who had inherited their will. She had spent years besides him and had gotten a good measure of him. Though the world saw Izuna Uchiha as a butcher, what they did not see was his mercy, his hatred for war and death.
They did not see his inner conflict. They did not see his hard work in trying to keep the civilian casualties in a battle to a minimum. This all remained hidden, both by design and
“I was busy,” she lied again as he raised a brow.
“Well, then we can reschedule it for after this mission. You have been in the village for a few years now and have yet to make any friends. Let me introduce you to a few of mine,” and she shook her head.
“There is no need for that. I am fi...” yet despite her denial, she knew that he would not listen.
“Consider it an order from your former commander,” he added a bit forcefully, as he gave her a small glare, as she stopped mid-sentence.
“You just said that we are no longer at war,” she retorted as he shrugged.
“And you denied those words. So, think of what you may, but after we return from this mission, you need to make some time. There are many people who are rather eager to meet the Angel of Death,” and she hated that moniker, yet also knew that it acted as a shield for her people.
“I will try,” she relented, as they came to a halt within the woods as she activated her ninjutsu as paper flew out of her cloak and began to form a bird infront of them, to carry them to their destination.
“A bird again?” he whispered, and he had often lamented to her about her rather boring choices for animals, as he suggested that she should choose bigger and more ferocious beasts as a model for construction.
“You can always travel on your own,” and Izuna scoffed at that as he hopped onto to the bird.
“And waste my own chakra like an idiot,” he replied and he had always been rather chipper about wasting chakra.
“Moreover, I am thinking of trying something so, I will need you to bring me to Kusa and just stay back,” and that took her by surprise, because according to the mission both of them were supposed to go and extract the two Uzumaki clan members together.
“Kusa will have made preparations. They expect an offensive and so will have their major force ready,” and that would all be separate from the hidden aide Iwa and Kumo will send to them, just to hinder them in their paths.
Kusa was an Iwa ally and would surely have reached out to Iwagakure and perhaps even Kumo, citing the threat from Konoha. And both of these villages were already rather troubled by Konoha's increasing influence and power, so they would have sent hunter-nin to Kusa as back-up to deter them.
“Strong as you are, you cannot take them on your own,” she warned him against doing anything stupid, as he looked her in the eye.
“Then let’s make a bet,” he said, his eyes narrowing as his lips turned up slightly.
“If I can subdue all of my adversaries and complete the mission on my own, then you agree to my request from earlier,” and her lips thinned as she sighed.
“And if I need your help at any point, then I will do anything you ask,” and that was such a broad request, giving her so much power.
And for a shinobi of his power, there was much that she could ask him to do.
“We have a deal then,” she said as he smiled. As her bird flapped its wings and took to the skies, she saw him plop down and close his eyes as he began to meditate.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Making preparations....”
0000
KUSHINA UZUMAKI
“Uzumaki!” she gasped, hope bubbling inside her as she heard the name of her clan. Years ago, when she had first heard of the attack on Uzushio, Kushina had spent hours plopped down against the gate eyeing every caravan entering the village for those all too familiar red hair.
She waited for months, yet they never came, and soon enough that little bubble of hope died, leaving behind nothing but despair as she realised that her clan was gone.
She had cried that day, cried like a baby as she found herself alone in this foreign land, destined to live as a jinchuriki. Then she found friends, found Mikoto, Minato, and many others, and gained a new family.
Yet as much as she loved them all, she missed her clan nonetheless.
And now, years later, she was taken aback when Minato suddenly brought it up once again.
“Yes, Uzumaki,” and she had not heard wrong.
“How? Where?” she asked, in sheer desperation, and Minato sighed.
“Kusa,” he answered and she realised that this whole matter was farther along than she had thought.
“I will leave tomorrow, then. It’s not that far, I can go there and meet the....” she began, as Minato placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Calm down, Kushina,” he spoke softly as he looked her in the eye. She could not calm down, but his expression made her stop, and he prompted her to sit down.
“You need to sit down and hear everything that I have to say first,” she said, and it took every ounce of patience in her to sit down and not just bolt towards Kusa at once. Minato picked up a folder from the pile to the side and handed it to her.
“Read this, it contains everything we know so far about them and their situation,” he said, and she took the files and began to skim over it, and realised that Minato was not just talking about one survivor, but two.
And just as her joy doubled at that, it lessened the instant she began to read their condition and circumstances. Rage bubbled from inside her, as she read the reports and saw the pictures, her heart melting as she saw those red hair and those heinous bite marks on that white skin.
“I will kill them! All of them!” she whispered, and the floor of their house cracked, as she felt someone grab her hand.
“Do not try to stop me, Minato! I will kill them! I will...” but he did not let her finish as he cut in coldly.
“You won’t have to,” he said, and his words made her frown as she looked him in the eye.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, her chakra still rampaged as the Kyubi’s chakra bubbled underneath her skin.
“First, you need to calm yourse...”
“I am as clam as I can be Minato. So, just answer me what do you mean by that,” she retorted and it was only for her son that she kept herself in control, otherwise she would have been halfway across the village by now, and would have torn Kusa to the ground for what they had done to her clansmen.
“Because Izuna is already on the route to Kusagakure as we speak,” and that made her stop, for if there was anyone who could understand her rage, it was Izuna.
“He has promised that he will bring them home one way or another,” and still Kusagakure was an entire village, to send him alone.
“Will he be fine, facing a village such as this all by himself?” she asked, her rage coming down to a simmer, as she heard Izuna-kun’s name.
“He will be just fine. However, he is not all by himself. I have sent Konan along with him just in case,” and that was a name she had been hearing quite a lot of for some time.
“Konan, I still have not met that girl,” and that was another lost opportunity, for one of her friends and companions had been an Uzumaki as well.
Nagato had been her name, yet he was now dead. Killed by Hanzo and his men in their effort to crush the Akatsuki.
“She is a good shinobi, one who has suffered much in life,” and Minato’s eyes dulled at the mention of the girl.
“She has stopped living and is just waiting for death, denying herself all the goodness around her,” and if the rumors were true, that included Izuna-kun as well.
“She reminds me of myself,” she began, and after the fall of Uzushio, living in Konoha had not been easy for her, despite having Mito-sama by her side.
Anger, resentment, frustration, and discontentment all bubbled up and went away over the years as she formed new bonds and found herself a new family.
“Indeed, she does,” Minato agreed with her, and though their ages were different, only she could understand her pain and suffering.
“I want to meet her,” and the interest went beyond Izuna’s interest in her, for she felt that she was the only one who could console her and help her through these times for unlike herself she did not have an equivalent to Mito-sama.
“I can only try and arrange something,” for though she lived in Konoha, she did not yet think of it as her home, just as Kushina could not think of it as her home until she had met Minato.
“What about the rest of the refugees?” she asked, and Jiraiya0sensei had rescued a few dozen people from Ame, and had brought them to Konoha as refuges.
“They have begun to settle down,” and that was a good thing.
“Most of them have given up on being ninja, and have settled down with families of their own,” and all of them had not known a moment’s peace in Ame, and now, as they found it, they wished to live their lives a little.
But there would be many among them who still remained conflicted about their place in the world, many, including Konan.
“Perhaps we could intervene as a village and advise the girl that a mat...” Yet before she could continue, she heard the creaking of a door. She turned to the side and saw her son, looking out the door, rubbing his eyes.
“You are still awake, Kaa-san....”
0000
Itachi stood at the training ground, waiting for his new teammates for the Chunin exam.
As he stood there waiting for his new teammates, Itachi suddenly found himself attacked, and titled his head to the side as a kunai whipped past it, and hit the ground. And the attacks did not stop, as a barrage of kunai came at him from different directions, forcing him to bring out his tanto as he deflected them all, except for the last one which he stopped, with his finger and swung back at the source of this attack.
TING!
And the attacks stopped as the Saringan spun in his eyes as he addressed his attacker.
“There is no use in hiding. My eyes can see you even behind those trees,” and a second later a figure came out from behind the tree, and stepped out of the shrubs. And she wore a loose brown jacket over a chain mail vest.
Her purple hair was tied in a ponytail, and there was a sharp thin cut right under her thin eyes. She smirked as she licked the blood on her cheek, as she scoffed.
“You were right, Saiko,” and that just confirmed his earlier suspicion about her identity as another person came out of the tree and joined the first girl.
“This one’s interesting,” and the next girl had traditional black Uchiha hair and features, and was someone he was quite familiar with.
Saiko Uchiha was a clan mate who was in the same generation as her brother, and while his brother stood out and stole much of the spotlight, the truth was that if it was not for him she would be hailed as a prodigy herself.
“Saiko-san, Anko-san,” he greeted them both, and felt a bit relieved, realising that they would be his teammates, for he had worried whether his new teammates could keep up with him.
“Itachi-sama,” the Uchiha kunoichi greeted him, using his official title.
“No need to call me Itachi-sama. I am your junior, you can simply call me Itachi,” he suggested with a smile, sheathing her blade.
“So, you are our teammate,” Anko Mitarashi began as he nodded.
“Yes, it seems so.”
“Do you have any idea which geezer is going to be our sensei. I would hate to have them replace Orochimaru-sensei with an idiot who can’t even keep up with us,” and he had feared that as well.
But if Hokage-sama had given such attention to their team’s balance, he believed that he would not just spring an uninspired jounin onto them as a sensei.
“Well, we will find out in a week....”
0000
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Comments
Dragonslayer29
Thanks for the chapter and I am excited to see kusa reactions when they face the god of death.
Radiant Tiefling
Thank you for the chapter.
Hamza Ikram
Corrected
Dovanova
War torn america 😂😂
