Deviation Actions
Literature Text
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I, Chizu Akimichi, Jonin of Konoha, ANBU in the service of the Third Hokage and my village, leave this message so that future generations will know that I was no coward… that I was no traitor. I understand that I am defying a direct order from the Third Hokage by recording this… but this is the only guaranteed way for an innocent man… a good man... to regain his name.
Besides… the Third Hokage does not command either my respect nor my loyalty anymore.
The Uchiha are dead. The entire clan has been killed on the direct order of ANBU commander Danzo Shimura with the assistance of an unknown masked man who calls himself ‘Madara Uchiha’. I do not know what their full relationship is, but I have gathered that the pair of them have worked together in the past.
The only survivors of this horrible crime are Itachi Uchiha and his younger brother Sasuke. My former mentor and partner, Itachi Uchiha, has fled the Hidden Leaf village in a fit of rage, swearing revenge against his government. Sasuke has been brainwashed by Danzo Shimura into believing that his family has been murdered by his older brother’s hand. I don’t know how long it would take to convince Sasuke of the truth, or if it is even possible.
I have been ordered by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage, to keep my silence on this matter, for the good of the village.
For the honor of my comrade, and out of respect of my friend. I am breaking that silence now.
I shall start where I last left off. The morning after our encounter with Madara Uchiha. My partner had informed me that the Head of the Uchiha clan had called an emergency gathering of his people to discuss their strike against the Hidden Leaf.
The temperature was rising as the dawn approached. Itachi and I scouted the Uchiha district. There were extra ANBU guards on duty at the northern, southern, eastern, and western gates. The walls were thick with patrols. At the time we thought it was merely a heightened security precaution. Danzo-sama knew that trouble was brewing, after all he was the one who was creating it.
The extra guards would only be a small issue for the evacuation though, with the entire Uchiha clan at our backs, we should be able to break out from Uchiha-town fairly easily… Not that we were planning on breaking out…
Our plan was for Itachi and some of the more skilled genjutsu users in his clan to cover the escape by making it seem like the whole of the Uchiha district was still occupied, while Madara Uchiha transported his clansmen away in large groups.
It was a good plan. In theory it should have worked flawlessly.
At first I was quite skeptical. After all, we had to present our proposal to the Uchiha clan as a whole. Itachi led me into the secret, underground, clan meeting area. All of his clansmen were gathered there… shouting, yelling, screaming for blood… To be honest I thought the revolution had already started.
As soon as she saw her eldest son, Mikoto Uchiha called out to him in a relieved voice. The noise dropped away and everyone turned to stare. The looks that they gave him weren’t kind. The Uchiha clan’s eyes grew even less friendly when they caught sight of me. “Come to arrest us all traitor?” spat a mean looking Uchiha, his hand reaching for a katana that was strapped over one shoulder.
Itachi didn’t even acknowledge the threat. “Father… I need to speak to you.”
Fugaku Uchiha’s face could have been carved from ice. “You were told not to return unless you decided to side with the clan, Itachi…” His eyes flickered to me and a frown started to form on his lips. “Does your presence here mean this?”
Itachi inhaled, stepped forward, and took off his mask. “Father… you are not yourself.” He turned and spoke to the crowd. “None of you are! You have all fallen under the influence of Danzo Shimura! He has trapped you in a most powerful but subtle genjutsu that is influencing your minds!” He took a step towards the mob. “Please… You must not do this.”
There was a moment of silence that was broken up by laughter. “Let it go Itachi-kun,” said a huge man that was holding a kusagari. “My daughter insists that despite this odd philosophy you have developed, that you are a good man.” He took a step towards Itachi and reached out with his hand. “The village in the Leaves has abandoned and betrayed us… A man does not sit and cower when his friends and family are attacked… he fights back… It is time for you to fight with us… fight with your family Itachi.” He waved a hand behind him, gesturing to a pretty dark haired girl. She wasn’t dressed in a fancy kimono, or wearing her usual makeup, but I recognized her just the same. Kei Uchiha, Itachi’s girlfriend.
My partner didn’t look up at her. He didn’t look at anyone. He just closed his eyes and let his head droop. Everyone stared at him as the silence built. “I am an Uchiha,” he acknowledged. “I would do anything to protect my family… especially when they are intent on destroying themselves!”
There was an angry pall that settled over the meeting chamber. “I told you Fugaku!” snarled the angry looking Uchiha. “I warned you our son had cast his lot in with the Hokage!” He yanked his sword from its scabbard. “You have made your position clear traitor! You will be the first casualty in our fight for freedom!” He took a slow step forward and I moved to intercept him. He smiled at me as his sharingan flashed red.
“No!” Itachi’s voice rang out clear and powerful, like a temple bell on a calm day. “There will be no fighting!!!”
The mean looking Uchiha went slack jawed and his katana fell from his limp fingers. The rest of the Uchiha clan were staring wide-eyed. I turned to look back over my shoulder at my partner.
Itachi’s eyes were open now and glowing a fiery red, but instead of the standard sharingan pattern of spinning tomoe, his pupils were ringed by sharp black whorls. “There will be no fighting,” he said again in a firm voice. “There will be no attack against Konoha… It is true that some in the Hidden Leaf have treated us poorly. Its leaders have abused us and neglected us… but even so, there are good people in this village… think of your non-Uchiha friends… think of your comrades…” He shook his head. “We cannot take the path of violence… Fighting would only strengthen the position of those who would do us harm, give them the excuse to brand us all as traitors…”
Itachi winced in pain and rubbed at his eyes for a moment. There was a quiet murmur from the crowd and he quickly straightened again. “We are not fools who can be manipulated into bringing about our own downfall. We are not sheep who blindly follow the shepherd to our slaughter… We are Uchiha! The strongest bravest shinobi in all the Ninja world. If Konoha does not appreciate us, does not want us in their village… then we shall oblige them!” An agreeable mutter sprang from the throats of a few Uchiha, which covered up the cracking in Itachi’s voice. I took a step towards my partner as he continued, wondering what was causing him so much pain.
“We will leave Konoha, we will strike out this very night and found a new village. An Uchiha village! We will live out our lives there, bound only by our clan rules, away from calculating scoundrels who would steal our land and our rightful influence! They know that we would easily beat them in battle, so they seek to murder us with politics. We will go to this new land and thrive!” Itachi hunched over for a second in pain. I put a hand on his shoulder to steady him but he shook me off. “We will prove that we are better than those clans that plot and scheme against us! Generations of shinobi to come will marvel how the Uchiha were so dignified to walk away from all the insults and forge their own path! This new village of our will be a gleaming monument to our clan’s prowess and power… and when those fools in charge of Konoha realize what they have lost and inevitably decide that they need us back… they will have to come begging on bended knees!”
There was a rough cheer at that. Itachi raised one fist in the air, while the other was clamped over his eye. “Join me my brothers and sisters!” he shouted. “Join me and together, we will find a better life!” There was a smattering of applause that grew, and grew. There was a ringing clatter throughout the underground meeting hall as various Uchiha dropped their weapons and stomped their feet. A small group of shinobi roughly our age were even chanting Itachi’s name.
Kei Uchiha ran up and kissed him full on the mouth, right in front of everyone and the cheers redoubled. The large Uchiha who was her father was looking extremely proud. It took all of my ANBU conditioning not to turn and run back outside as the kiss went on, and on.
Eventually Itachi separated himself from her, and outlined his plan: 1) All Uchiha just behave normally for the rest of the day 2) With nightfall they will gather in the main square in the Uchiha district carrying supplies for the journey 3) With the assistance of a few loyal friends of his (me, and that masked man who Itachi insists is really Madara Uchiha) we begin the exodus. 4) The Uchiha's escape will be covered by a powerful genjutsu making everything appear normal 5) They journey to a new land, perhaps even as far as the Land of Rain, and start a new life and a new village.
It took forever for all the Uchiha to come up and meet with him and to thank him and to generally clap him on the back and say what a astounding young man he was, but eventually everyone, even Kei, left the meeting, leaving just the two of us in that huge empty room decorated with the fan symbol of the Uchiha clan. It was then that Itachi finally took his hand away from his eye revealing that both his eye socket and palm were crusty with congealing blood.
“Gods Itachi!” I admonished him as I attempted to clean him up. “What happened? Why the hell didn’t you say something? What’s the matter with your eye?”
Itachi relaxed a little as I sponged the blood away. “Shisui never told me how painful it was to use the mangekyo sharingan.”
“The what? Is that some new technique Shisui taught you?” Itachi paled under my hand. “What?” I asked. “Is this one of those things that I’ll need to consider if I really want to know?”
Itachi thought for a long time and then slowly shook his head. “No… the power of the mangekyo sharingan is not something that can be taught… it can only be awakened… or... transferred.” I stopped cleaning him up and just stared at him, hoping that I had misunderstood him and that my partner would laugh and correct the sudden disturbing suspicion that flooded into my head. He didn’t. “It isn’t any power that I learned, Chizu… it’s Shisui’s.”
“You mean… Shisui’s eye,” I said flatly, trying to keep the disgust out of my voice.
I didn’t try hard enough. Itachi shuddered. “Shisui gave it to me freely… He asked me to keep using it on his behalf to protect our people… our village.”
I thought back to our discussion regarding sharingan in Orochimaru’s lair. “Isn’t that expressly forbidden by your clan?”
“Yes,” said Itachi, hunching in on himself. “But we agreed it was necessary. There was no other sure way to avoid conflict.”
Forbidden… doing something forbidden but necessary… Almost the very definition of being an ANBU. I sighed and went back to blotting. “Yeah… well don’t let any of your clanmates figure out you have that.”
Itachi recovered enough for the pair of us to go out on patrol. It wasn’t on any official patrol docket, but the great thing about being an ANBU is that nobody ever questions what you are doing. Heck even other ANBU hesitate to bother you, just in case you’re on a super top secret mission. We took a meandering route across the Avenue of Merchants to throw anyone who might be tailing us off the trail. Itachi even took the further precaution of swapping out his raven mask for one of a cat. More incognito, was his reasoning… personally I thought more people would have noticed a cat and a mouse heading by on patrol… but whatever… Itachi’s genjutsu was enough to cover both of us.
We headed up the side of the Hokage monument and made a quick scouting run of the Uchiha observatory station. Itachi wanted to get the fields of view right for the genjutsu he was going to project that night. Once we were done, I thought that we would head back down and get some rest, but instead my partner kept on climbing and took us to the top of the monument.
He stopped right on top of the Fourth Hokage’s head. I asked him why we were here, but he didn’t answer me. He just sat down and stared out over the village. After what felt like an eternity of endless debate in my mind, I sat next to him. “Are you going to miss it all when you go?”
Itachi shrugged. “Some… I suppose. Konoha hasn’t entirely been the best home… but it’s been my home all the same.”
I waited, but nothing else seemed to be forthcoming. “So… I guess this is goodbye then?” I asked. Itachi nodded. “I’ll miss you.”
My partner exhaled, a long slow sound. “Chizu… You have been a good friend… a far better one than I deserve. I wish that things could have been different… I wish that…”
“Yeah… I know,” I interrupted. I hate to say it, but Itachi was right… there are certain things that we just shouldn't say to each other out loud. Plus… I really hate teary goodbyes and if he didn’t shut up I was going to start crying. “Let’s get going before someone wonders why two ANBU are having a picnic on the Minato-sama’s head. I want to catch a nap for a few hours before the mission tonight.”
We headed back to the Uchiha district as the sun was creeping towards the western horizon. We took a route through the sewers in order to avoid passing through the checkpoints. We came back up above ground near the Uchiha meeting room. I don’t know where Madara Uchiha came from, but one second we were making our way to the main plaza, and the next he was silently walking beside us. “Who is this?” he asked staring at me dispassionately.
“A friend,” Itachi replied.
“You are a fool to trust an outsider with a matter of this importance,” he said in chilly clipped tones. It was clear that he didn’t approve of me being there. “Her motives are an unknown quality. It adds risk and danger to this undertaking. It would be best if she were removed from the equation.”
Before his hand could move, Itachi had jumped between us. “This is my mission. I designed it, I am the one in charge here,” he said, ready to fight. “And I say she will be of assistance in this. I trust the Mouse with my life.”
“Then I say, you are far too trusting of people... Itachi Uchiha.” When there was no further reply from my partner, the masked man shrugged. “So be it… let whatever happens here fall on your head.”
We entered the small plaza in the center of the Uchiha district and could instantly see that something was wrong… terribly wrong. There were far fewer Uchiha gathered there than we were expecting, and those that were present appeared to be stumbling about as if they were drunk. All of the clan’s children that were there were bedridden, some were being carried about aimlessly in their parents arms. There was no order, no genjutsu users, no supplies gathered, just a bunch of weakened Uchiha. All of whom immediately looked to us for assistance.
I heard Itachi swear under his breath as the debilitated masses came surging forward. Kei Uchiha, once again perfectly made up and with her kimono perfectly tied, plowed her way to the front and grabbed his arm. “Itachi,” she said weakly, but still trying to smile. “We have to postpone the departure… We can’t leave… not tonight… Something is wrong, we’re all sick… My mother is so ill she can’t get out of bed… I left my little sister to care for her… please… we can’t leave them behind…”
Itachi’s eyes widened and he spun his head around looking for someone. “Where are my parents?” he asked, a hint of panic creeping into his voice. “Where is Sasuke?”
Kei shook her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them. Itachi we’re not well... we have to postpone…”
“I’m very sorry Kei, it is imperative that I find my father… He’ll have to help with the organization of this. Here,” he said steering the girl to me. “This is my ANBU partner Nezumi-san. I’m sure you’ve heard of her. She will help you.” He stopped and concentrated for a moment. “I’ve just put the square under a three layer genjutsu,” he muttered to me. “It should keep all of you hidden for a while. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” With that, Itachi hastily sprinted off through the crowd, leaving me face to face with his officially sanctioned girlfriend.
I did what I could. It turned out that Kei had a field qualification as a medical-nin, and with her assistance, I was able to round up a few more Uchiha with medical training. I know is bad of me to have thought this, but it really surprised me how helpful she was… you know… given how pretty she was and all. Together we got some of the healthier Uchiha to look for ways to transport those that were ill. She found volunteers to help carry the children, give water to those that were sick, and wipe down those that were feverish, while I assigned people to round up food and traveling supplies and fill canteens from the well… and all the while Madara Uchiha just sat on a rooftop, watching all of us scurry around below. I thought about saying something… but didn’t. How does one admonish someone who believes he is a hundred year old shinobi of legend?
Pretty soon, I ran out of things to do. It was full dusk by then and the moon was just starting to rise. It hung, just over the horizon like a huge bloody, scarred orb. I started as a hand was laid on my shoulder. I turned and found myself staring into that orange mask. “A red moon rises,” came the bass voice, muffled by the mask. “An ominous omen… I suggest you let me start on moving the sicker clansmen now…”
“No! We’re going to wait until Itachi returns.” I insisted.
The mask stared at me. There was just the barest flicker of movement behind the single eyehole. “I have a schedule to keep. If you are not ready to leave in twenty minutes… I shall be leaving alone.”
I turned and waved a hand at the slowly growing crowd of Uchiha. “Twenty minutes? They won't be ready in two hours! You can't just expect…”
I turned back and realized that Madara had vanished. Itachi hadn’t returned either. I told Kei and a few of the more able bodied Uchiha to continue with the preparations and went to find my partner.
I could hear Itachi and his mother yelling from outside the front gate to his house. “You can’t be serious!” I heard Mikoto Uchiha shout. “He can barely stand! It’s no use Itachi… we’ll just have to put it off until he has recovered!”
“Mother… we have to move him. There is no other choice! I have the means to transport our clan outside the warning barrier of Konoha now… By tomorrow it may all be too late!”
“Nonsense! A few more days will give your Father time to regain his strength. Once we have that…”
I ran up to the front door to his house and almost charged inside, and then I hesitated, wondering if I should remove my shoes. Isn’t it weird how tradition grabs hold of you at the most inopportune times?
“Mother!” Itachi spat, his voice full of frustration. “We do not have the time! The Commander of the ANBU knows of the plans for a coup! He has already approached me… trying to make me an offer to turn traitor to the clan!”
Danzo knew… I knew then that we had to hurry. There was also Madara’s ultimatum to consider. I decided that I didn’t have time for politeness and just settled for charging right in, boots clattering. “Itachi,” I shouted so that he wouldn't think he was under attack.
“Here!” he called back. I made my way to some sort of sitting room/home office on the first floor of the house. Fugaku Uchiha was lying weakly on a futon, his face pale and dripping rivulets of sweat.
“We’ve got to hurry!” I said ignoring the shocked look on his mother’s face. “Madara says he’ll only wait twenty minutes!”
“Madara?” asked Mikoto with a shocked gasp.
Itachi gave her a pained grin. “There is little time to explain Mother… other than he is the means by which we shall leave… we have to go… Now!” he gestured at his father. “Chizu?” he asked.
I looked at Fugaku Uchiha critically and reached into my equipment pouch. I gave him four food pills to chew on before I grew to about two and half meters in height. Just enough to pick up the Head of the Uchiha clan and hold him like a child without smashing my head on the ceiling. Itachi looked around frantically. “Where’s Sasuke?”
There was a moment of dead silence. “He’s not with you?” Mikoto asked. “He told me that he was going to spend extra time training today and I assumed…”
“Maybe he’s already joined up with the others in the square?” I suggested, mindful of Madara’s approaching deadline. “He couldn’t have missed that crowd, and I’m sure someone would have stopped him.”
We hurried back to the plaza. There was no sign of Sasuke… Or Madara. “No no no no no!” yelled Itachi. “Chizu! You said he would wait twenty minutes!”
I shrugged helplessly. “That’s what he told me…”
The Uchiha who weren’t flat on their backs were beginning to get scared and angry. Whatever ‘awakened sharingan’ jutsu Itachi had put his clan under the day before was wearing off. “Well Itachi-kun?” yelled the mean-faced Uchiha from the other night. “You promised us a brand new life in a brand new village! Where is this miracle land?”
Itachi just pushed past him, staring at the growing mob of people in frustration. A medical nin ran up to him. “Itachi-sama,” she said quietly. “Many of the sick ones are getting worse… the rate at which they’re losing chakra is accelerating… How draining is this mystery jutsu we’re using for transport going to be?”
Itachi hesitated. “It will be fine! Everything will be fine!” he insisted. I could hear the lie in his voice. “Mouse! Give food pills to those that are ill… I need to find our friend.”
I reached into my pouch and felt around. I looked at the growing crowd of sick people. I didn’t have anywhere near enough. “Umm,” I said.
I didn’t get a chance to tell him this before more bad news hit. Over by the sick children another medical-nin threw the canteen he was holding against the wall with a crash. “Oh my Gods!” he roared. “It’s the water! Don’t drink the water! It’s been poisoned!”
There was a hue and cry amongst the gathered Uchiha as they went into a full blown panic. “Poison?” Mikoto moaned in disbelief as she clutched at her stomach.
The medical nin who made the discovery pushed his way over to us. “Look at the children… that was what gave me the first clue. The ones who have gotten worse are the ones we’ve been helping the most… Then Ayumi-san fell sick… she was fine until she took her break and drank… So I tested the water…”
“Do you know the antidote?” Itachi asked desperately.
The medical-nin shook his head. “I don’t even know what poison it is… We need a doctor, Itachi… we need to take everyone to the hospital! We can’t leave now! There isn’t…”
He stopped short as a rock flew past us and clattered on the street. Those Uchiha who weren’t flat on their backs, or trying to make themselves puke were staring at me with murderous hostility. “She was the one who did it!” hissed someone in the crowd. “Kill the ANBU,” said someone else. “Murderer!” yelled a mother, holding the limp body of a toddler. They might have been sick, but there were a lot of them and most of them were holding weapons as they staggered forward.
“Itachi?” I said nervously. I didn’t know what to do. Fight them? Run? Things were completely falling apart.
My partner stepped in front of the mob. “Stop this madness!” he said in a commanding voice. His hand immediately went to his eye. “Nezumi-san has been with me all day! Have you all forgotten how she was with me when we fought Orochimaru? She is a friend to the Uchiha clan! I will stake my life on that!”
The crowd slowed a little, maybe their weapons were no longer pointed directly at me, but they still came, giving me dark looks. I made up my mind to run. My plan was to first grow huge, stepping over the rooftops to the next street over and then shrink down and try to make it to a storm drain. I took a deep breath…
“Hard to control a mangekyo sharingan… isn’t it Itachi-kun?” came a voice as emotionless and merciless as a virus. “Let me give you a piece of advice… It is far easier to appeal to a target’s baser nature that it is to convince them to act civilized.”
The whole crowd turned. There stood Danzo Shimura leaning on walking stick and staring at the Uchiha swarm, his mouth twisted in a thin lipped expression of satisfaction. He was surrounded by a full platoon of ANBU. “You poor foolish Uchiha,” he said, as if he were admonishing a child. “For all your visual prowess… you might as well be blind.” He turned to Itachi and myself and gave us a bow. “Well done Raven. Superb work Mouse. Your plan to murder Shisui Uchiha and use his mangekyo sharingan to manipulate these idiots into a position where you could get them to poison themselves is inspiring… the Uchiha clan is well and truly helpless.”
All Itachi and I could do was stare at him dumbfounded. Danzo tapped his cane once on the cobbles as some sort of signal. There was the whisper of soft footsteps on the rooftops. Shadows appeared on top of every building surrounding the plaza. Shadows wearing ANBU masks. There was a flurry of movement and the air was filled with the sound of hissing steel. The screaming started.
The Uchiha that were still upright activated their sharingan and started dodging or blocking the attack, but there were far too many weapons in the air, especially if Itachi’s more able bodies clansmen also wanted to protect the Uchiha who were lying unconscious on the ground… the ones who could not move… the ones who were the most affected by the poison… the young… the old… the ones that I put there… the ones that I had been trying to keep safe.
There was a brief pause as the ANBU readied another volley of kunai and shuriken. I just stood there stupidly, unable to comprehend what I had just seen. There was blood everywhere, twisted bodies, people screaming and crying. Many of the survivors were just as shocked as I was… despite all their talk of rebellion and war… I don’t think that they ever really expected it to come home to their families…
There was that one brief moment of bewilderment… and then reality came crashing down on us all.
Itachi told me once that every Uchiha wants a death worthy of a song, and that is how they fought. Some charged the ANBU on the roof tops, cutting into their ranks, disrupting formations and aim, distracting them from the targets below. They were weakened by poison and some were wounded… couldn’t use much in the way of jutsu so they fought hand to hand…
And they died. They took a moderate number of the ANBU with them though and more importantly they bought time for the others to regroup and attempt to escape… or counterattack. A second small group of Uchiha charged headlong at Danzo Shimura and engaged his men. Another party headed for Itachi and me.
My partner and I fought back to back as a third ragged volley came down from the roofs above. Kunai and shuriken tumbled around us as we blocked blows from Uchiha screaming for our blood. I don’t know if it was the press of attackers or the fact that we were both still wearing our ANBU masks and the attackers took us for one of their own, but we weren't hit at all.
The Uchiha surrounding us weren’t so lucky. I heard cries and saw several of them wince, but they just shrugged off the wounds and pressed us further. They had pushed Itachi and myself back up against a storefront when I noticed that several of the attackers were slowing down or even dropping back in their pursuit of us. I recognized the mean faced Uchiha as he stooped over gasping for breath. He crouched there, hands on knees for a moment before keeling over. Another one staggered and dropped, and another…
“Itachi!” bellowed Fugaku Uchiha. “Your mother! Help me!” Mikoto Uchiha had taken a kunai trying to protect her husband who could barely move. The head of the Uchiha clan was doing his best to hold her upright as she struggled to breathe.
I gave Itachi a shove. “Go!” I screamed. “I’ll cover you!” I grew to about three meters hoping the extra strength would make up for the larger target area. As Itachi was running back to his parents, out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure leap out at him, swinging a kusagari. Barely even breaking stride, Itachi whirled and cut him down with his ANBU issue tanto sword.
The Uchiha I was fighting were dropping like leaves in an early frost. The murderous frenzy was draining out of them, some turning to run, others just collapsing where they stood. It was going far easier for the ANBU than it should have been… and that’s when I had a suspicion. Poison had already been used once this night… why wouldn’t it not be used a second time?
I returned to normal size and gingerly picked up a fallen kunai and examined the blade. It had an oily brownish stain along the edge and coating the point. “Glorious is it not?” asked a deep raspy voice behind me. I spun and saw Madara Uchiha’s orange mask lurking in the shadow of the store’s entryway. “Tell me ‘friend of Itachi’... what do you think your partner will feel when he sees all of this? Do you think it will upset him?”
Furious, I swung the kunai at the man. The blade passed right through his chest with no resistance, as if he were made of smoke. I stumbled with the unchecked blow, but tried to stab him again with the same result. “Where were you, you bastard!?!” I snarled. “You promised you’d help!”
There was a rumbling, pitiless laugh. “I told him that promises were cheap… it is only one’s actions that matter. The sooner Itachi realizes that there is nothing left for him in this imperfect world, the better… speaking of which…” His mask seemed to swallow itself up and he disappeared with it.
The fighting had moved on from the town square. Most of the Uchiha had given up on trying to kill the ANBU and were running for their lives looking for some place to hide, some place to escape to. I could still hear sporadic clashes elsewhere in the Uchiha district, but main battle here was over… the only Uchiha left in the plaza were dead.
From my vantage point in the shadows, I watched as the ANBU started sorting the corpses into piles. A pair of them came over and reached for one of the Uchiha, a kunoichi that I had been fighting earlier. As one of them picked her up, she gave a small moan. “Hey, this one’s still alive,” said the one in the dog mask.
“Yeah? How old is she?” his partner in a lizard mask asked in a disinterested way, starting to drag another Uchiha away by his feet.
“Too old,” said dog mask, drawing a kunai across her throat.
I must have made some noise when he killed the kunoichi for both of them suddenly looked up and spotted me. They relaxed when they spotted my mask. “What are you standing around for?” he said with a wave of his hand. “You heard the orders, give us a hand!”
The men in my clan like to brag about the ‘legendary berserker rage’ of the Akimichi clan. Personally I had always thought it was a myth… until that night... I didn’t even think. I don’t even remember being angry… I just exploded up to ten meters tall, blasting my way through the store awning, and smashed my fists down on the pair of them. Things crackled under my hands, and I felt the pavement jump. My hands stung, but I don’t remember much else.
It also got the attention of the other ANBU. There were shouts of alarm and the whistle of shuriken. I shrank and ran, going from a huge target to a small one, a ploy that has worked well for me in the past. Even so, these were ANBU, I still feel lucky that they all missed.
I fled down the narrow alleyways of the Uchiha district, crisscrossing them and backtracking to throw off pursuit, and all the while trying to make my way to the Head of the clan’s house. I figured that would be a good logical place for the Uchiha to chose to make a stand. It had its own walls, its own well… I’ll admit I was also hoping that I could find Itachi there.
