Izumi's POV:

Hidan and Kakuzu were assigned with a mission to kill some priests, it was the very mission that they encountered Team 10 and killed Asuma. The only difference is, Asuma isn't dying this time. Especially since Kurenai is pregnant with his child. I used double team to leave a clone with Tobi although I created at least 10 clones just in case my stand in dies. Right now, I'm following Hidan and Kakuzu in the form of Fletchling.

As expected, it was a good idea to turn into a baby bird Pokémon. The size was good for hiding behind tree trunks making it easy to stalk the zombie duo and I could easily escape whenever it's needed. I could tell the duo was getting kind of agitated because they kept looking around. Kakuzu could tell he was being watched due to his years of experience and Hidan could tell because of how he would get many unwanted stares from bystanders whenever he did his usual sacrificing although none of them lived because he would kill them all shortly after. But that's if you stare right at their heads, making holes on them.

It's amusing to watch them get all angsty. I glanced at the right where I sensed Team 10 slowly approaching. They were almost at the temple while we were about 10-15 minutes away. It's almost time. I had a plan to save Asuma but I want to see if Team 10 improved. I'm pretty sure all the leaf shinobis have been informed of about the Akatsuki's strengths and weaknesses by Minato. If they were, I have no doubts that Shikamaru came up with something to deal with a majority of the members i.e everyone except Obito, Pein and I.

It'd be interesting to see what he came up with to counter them. I figure that Shikamaru will blow up Hidan but as for Kakuzu, I have absolutely no idea since his death in canon was a team effort that involved Naruto, Kakashi and unintentionally Hidan. Speaking of Naruto, did he create Rasenshuriken yet? With so many changes, I'm not sure if everyone developed properly. Naruto's motivation was to become Hokage to get people to respect him and Sasuke's motivation was revenge against Itachi in canon. However this time, Naruto is respected because he's the Hokage's son and Sasuke has no reason to seek revenge. Their only motivations would be to surpass their idols i.e their father and brother which isn't really a powerful motivation.

I sighed quietly. What a headache. I silently flew behind Hidan and Kakuzu while keeping an appropriate distance from them. Screw it, I'll push Obito into thinking of declaring the 4th great ninja war and warn Minato about it so he could secretly announce it to the village. This should push everyone into training harder and with the power of plot armor on Team 7's side, I won't be surprised if they suddenly become stronger than their canon counterparts during the war although I won't count on it. 'Not a bad idea.'

"It's not just me right? I'm feeling some bitch watching me," Hidan quietly in annoyance to Kakuzu. Normally no human would be able to hear him but my senses are much stronger than a normal human. Kakuzu slightly bobbed his head up and down to subtly nod at Hidan but I caught sight of it. He then slightly turned his head to look back while I simply hid behind a thick trunk. It didn't take long for me to smell smoke. Goodness, I made you that angsty? I immediately used teleport to get away from the fire jutsu Kakuzu just used and used shadow sneak on one of the trees' shadows to hide.

I watched Kakuzu walk to the burning trees and look around carefully, trying to find something that could prove the fact there was someone watching them. Too bad they won't. Even if there was, it's probably burnt already because where I was previously hiding was in the direct blast of the fire jutsu. The moment the jutsu hit, where I hid just now would be the first to turn into ashes. Respect the environment! None of the animals were hurt because I had them leave the area when Hidan and Kakuzu were around. Anytime they went hunting for food or eat a food pill, I'd put them in a genjutsu to make them think they ate something when they actually took some slow acting poison. I had also took away their food pills and replaced it with poisonous pills when they were taking turns to guard at night. It would give Team 10 a higher chance at winning if the duo didn't have a lot of energy. It stayed like that for a whole week so I'm quite sure Team 10 will have the upper hand. They cannot lose unless they didn't get the Akatsuki's info from Minato but if they did and still lost, I will be making fun of them for it during the war and probably for the rest of their lives if I live. No questions asked.

Anyways, Kakuzu finished his inspection and came out empty handed. "No traces." Hidan scowled as he looked at the burning forest before turning back to the front, "Well, let's go then." They put it off as being paranoid while raising their vigilance and this time they didn't feel anyone watching them. That's mainly because I decided to stop messing around since we were getting closer. I don't intend to warn Team 10 about them, I want to see if they got stronger or weaker than their canon counterparts. I don't want to just focus on Team 7's strength. I wonder if it's possible to make it completely impossible for the Otsutsukis to come to the Naruto world. If it's possible then there would be no reason for me to stay here. The only reason why they couldn't come here in the beginning is because of the Sage of Six Path's authority which faded after the war.

I continued following the zombie duo while thinking of things that could possibly stop the Otsutsukis from stepping on Earth. Trying to get the Sage of Six Path's authority is nothing more than a dream unless I get close with the tailed beasts but that would be the definition of impossible since Kurama would hate my guts automatically for being an Uchiha and I do not have talk no jutsu. Even if I manage to get it, no matter how I look at it, it would only be a temporary solution. Hagoromo isn't the strongest Otsutsuki, I'm sure Shibai Otsutsuki could easily bypass his authority. He probably didn't because there were other worlds he could destroy for power.

'Izumi, you're forgetting the powers you inherited from me and powers of the bracelets.' 

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Oh. I think Mew facepalmed, not sure though. 'You don't have to worry about this crap, there's still over a decade for it all to happen. In case you haven't realized, time runs differently in every world. 1 second could mean a year in another world or 1 year could equal to 1 day in another and so on.'

That might be so but I don't want to end up having to revisit this world in the future. I'd prefer to spend that time exploring another world. 'You were always an adventurous person.' You know I am. 'Either way, you don't have to go the extra mile or rather I think you shouldn't because you lack the experience. We're talking about a man who has been around way before the warring era while you only have a little less than 2 decades of experience. Besides, killing him isn't your mission. As long as you can get Naruto and Sasuke to their full potential and raise the others to their full potential then you don't have to worry about this too much. Just set the stage, and everything will be fine.' You know, this is like the first time you gave me actual advice. You always have me decide. 'You already know it's for your experience. I only intend to give you advise on when you should move onto another world and such. Whatever you do in those worlds doesn't matter to me as long as you complete your purpose in those worlds. Also, do know that it's fine if you decide to stay in those worlds.'

Mew was definitely subtly telling me to enjoy life after the war, that's only if Tsunade has a cure for me which I kind of doubt when I think about it. After all, my illness has long progressed into the late stages and I'm pretty sure I'm not even supposed to be still alive at this point. The cure Tsunade creates could probably only answer to the early stages of the illness. If it weren't for my mastery of using makeup (which I developed for missions and to hide eyebags), I'd probably look dead. Without makeup, my skin would be more pale than snow, my eyes would probably look like they're about to fall out at any moment and my face would probably show the exterior of my skull. My hands were quite boney like as well which I hid by wearing combat gloves. To make it short, I'd look like the most malnourished female midget in the world. It can't really be hidden apart from using an atrocious amount of makeup or resorting to put a genjutsu over it. The Byakugou seal can only help you keep your youth, it doesn't help you hide any signs of illness which is why I look so dead. To make things worse, the illness and huge lack of over a decade's sleep had put a stunt to my growth as it progressed so I'm going to be stuck at 5'3 until I die. Last time I grew a centimeter was when I was 15 or something. People never commented on my height because they're attention goes to either my cloak or my eyes immediately. How I managed to seduce people was by wearing tight fitting kimonos with 4 inch sandals.

Being a midget sucks. Old Izumi (Y/N) never had to experience the problems of being a midget since she was 5'9 1/2 in her past life. I want my height back!! The only thing that really grew is my chest!! Heck, why didn't they sag with my shitty health?!!

-To make you suffer -

F-

-please stand by-

YOU!!

-Well it's because of the byakugou seal that you kept your melons now back to the plot!-

Why the f-

We got closer and closer to the temple. It didn't take long for Hidan and Kakuzu to reach the temple and slaughter all the priests. They should be here soon. Right on que, Team 10 jumped out of the trees and tried to kill the duo with an ambush which failed horribly. Haizz... shouldn't they know that the easiest way to kill them is to blow them up? Why the hell are they trying to kill them with blades? Unless Minato didn't reveal the Akatsuki's weaknesses to them.... After a few more minutes of the team trying to kill the duo and the said duo playing with them, I was disappointed. They got weaker than their canon counterparts didn't they? Damn butterflies.

Well, I came to one conclusion with this fight. Minato didn't tell anyone the weaknesses of the Akatsuki apart from Gaara's rescue team. Minato, I thought you were smarter than this. Surely, you're not that busy to the point that you don't even have the time to let people know of the village's enemies' weaknesses.

Hidan managed to get Asuma's blood on his scythe and was bringing it up to his mouth. Time to step in. I turned back into my human form. But instead of being Uchiha Izumi, I was now Kagune Shirogane instead.

I leapt out of my hiding spot in the trees and kicked Hidan's scythe away before he could lick it.

"WHAT THE F-"

-please stand by-

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