Konoha Children's Crusade Chapter 38 Part 14

    “Because my Hokage ordered me to be. Probably because he knows that I’m one of the few ANBU in the village right now who would put in an honest effort to keep protecting your butt.” I tapped the dressing wrapped around my thigh. “I got that trying to save you.”

    There was a long pause. “Why do you keep insisting you were there?” Sasuke snarled at me angrily. “Why would you want to ‘protect’ me? What’s in it for you?”

    I debated ignoring him, but finally decided to try to reason with him one last time. “I say I was there because I was… Whatever else you choose to believe… I was… As for why I would protect you…” I winced as I tied off my latest bandage. “Your brother was my partner... and Itachi loved you… he wanted to…”

    The younger Uchiha stood up and pointed a furious finger at me. “My brother never loved me! He never cared about anything but himself!” Sasuke interrupted, speaking with such conviction that anyone would have believed him. “And now… now…” he hesitated, a slow realization dawning over his face. “Now everyone in my whole family is dead… With no one else to avenge them.” Sasuke turned away from me and sat down without another word.

    It was a few hours later when the Hokage finally returned with his personal jonin guard of Genma, Raido, and Aodo in tow. “Sasuke-kun,” he said in a quiet voice. “I want you to go with these men. Genma-san and his squad will escort you to one of the group homes for the children of Konoha who have lost…”

    “No,” said Sasuke.

    “No?”

    “No. I won’t go to an orphanage,” the Young Uchiha insisted. “I’ll live by myself.”

    The Hokage raised his eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you rather be among other children your own age?”

    Sasuke looked up, his eyes cold and gleaming. “Other children will only distract me. I will be better off by myself so I can focus… so I can train. I’ll need a lot of training so I can get stronger. I’ll need to be stronger if I want to have a chance of killing him.”

    The Hokage blinked in surprise. He leaned forward and took Sasuke’s chin in his hands. Sasuke looked aside for a second and then met the Hokage’s gaze, glaring back defiantly. “I see,” said Hiruzen in a thoughtful voice. “Genma… will you take Sasuke-kun to one of the guest rooms in the Hokage mansion for the night? Stand by the door to make sure that he has everything he needs. In the morning we will find him a genin style flat… I believe he is mature enough to handle living alone.”

    Genma chewed on the senbon he always carried in his mouth for a second and looked like he might make some kind of comment… but in the end he merely nodded. The three man squad walked Sasuke out.

    If I had known then what was going to happen to Sasuke, I would have done everything in my power to prevent that.

    “What did Danzo do to him?!?” I snarled angrily. When there was no reply from the Hokage, I whirled and asked again louder.

    “I believe it is a forbidden jutsu that originates from the Yamanaka clan… One that enables the user to overwrite the memories of the victim.”

    “Can you fix him?”

    The Hokage sighed, and leaned wearily against the wall. “Chizu… the truthful answer is… I don’t know if anyone can… and if it were possible, I’m not even sure if I can afford to.”

    “What?!?” I screamed.

    He winced and held up his hand. “Please… just listen… then you can curse me and damn me to your heart’s content…” he exhaled heavily. “Believe me, in the months and years to come, I will probably be joining you…”

    He paused for so long that I worried he had changed his mind and wasn’t going to tell me anything. But then he took a deep breath and continued. “Danzo is right… the fault is mine. I knew that Shimura-san was ambitious, but I thought… I thought that my oldest friend would be able to continue to put the well-being of Konoha before his own thirst for power. I was wrong.” He coughed slightly and searched for his pipe in his pockets. “I have done my best to rectify this… Danzo-san will placed under house arrest for as long as he insists on remaining in the HIdden Leaf.”

    I read between the lines. “So… You can’t banish him is what you are saying?”

    Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. “He will no longer be Commander of the ANBU, and he will no longer be able to hold his position as Head of the Shimura clan… I have managed to strip him of much of his power. However… he has managed to engineer the situation to his advantage. It is a talent he has always had. Even as a genin Danzo was adept at seeing social patterns and twisting them to his benefit.” He found his pipe and started filling it with sweet smelling tobacco.

    “How?” I asked, curious despite myself.

    “I will not go into details… suffice to say, I often ended up in more trouble than he.” The Hokage lit his pipe with a match and started puffing away on it. “I bring it up because I find myself in a similar situation now… The reality is that he is too well connected for me to banish. If I were to properly cast him out, it would split Konoha down the middle, pit the Sarutobi clan against the Shimura. It wouldn’t take much for a few hotheads to shed blood and then there would be fighting in the streets…”

    “But you could so easily destroy his support! All you would need to do is tell all of Konoha the truth! That Danzo is hiding a sharingan under his bandages! Tear them off his face and show it to the public! The evidence is there! Expose him for the traitor he is!”

    Hiruzen Sarutobi looked away. “If Danzo’s sharingan is shown… I lose my position as the Hokage of Konoha.” He looked up at my shocked expression. “No! You misunderstand. I didn’t not give the order for Danzo to take Shisui’s sharingan. As a young Hokage in the midst of the second war, an old comrade of mine, Kagami Uchiha, fell. His dojutsu was of such a great benefit to the war effort that I made the deliberate decision to try to keep his sharingan alive… and Danzo volunteered.” The Hokage sighed heavily. “Of course, Danzo kept the orders from that time. If I expose him as having a sharingan, all he needs to do is show the documentation. I would be denounced in breaking one of the oldest laws in the Konoha. The Hyuga would go mad hearing that. If they didn’t try to kill me outright, the one remaining clan with a dojutsu would probably leave the Leaf all together. Every other clan whom I slighted during my tenure as Hokage will rise up against me…” He looked up at me with tired weary eyes. “Is it worth doing the right thing if the cost is everything you hold dear?”

    I wasn’t sure if I agreed with that logic, but I had much less to lose than he did. I decided to ask about something else that was troubling me. “Well then… what about Sasuke? Why won’t you even try restoring his mind?”

    Hiruzen took the dead pipe out of his mouth and looked about for an ashtray to tap the remains of his pipe bowl into. When he couldn't find one, he just knocked out the ashes on the floor. “Because… despite all the trouble that Danzo has caused… we have a much more… prominent issue at the moment. Itachi Uchiha has mastered the Susano’o… the great chakra warrior… the highest level of dojutsu available to the Uchiha clan… and he has also sworn an oath of vengeance against Konoha.”

    “Well? What did you expect?” I asked testily. “His whole clan was killed right in front of his very eyes, by a man who you seem to be completely unwilling to bring to any sort of reasonable justice! I think he was showing remarkable restraint!”

    Hiruzen Sarutobi looked away… ashamed. “Not his whole clan Chizu… there is one other member of the Uchiha clan who is still alive,” he said quietly.

    “You would hold Sasuke hostage?” I spat angrily.

    “Mouse… the last Uchiha who could summon the Susano’o was Madara… That jutsu gave him enough strength to battle Hashirama Senju on an even footing. Your former partner has mastered the jutsu, and if your tale of two nights ago is correct… Madara Uchiha himself is alive as well.” He paused and gave me a significant glance. I just glared back. “The hate that fills young Sasuke’s head may be a result of Danzo’s scheming… but it will serve us well… We are now assured that at least one of the remaining Uchiha will be allied with us.”

    I stared at the Hokage incredulous as to what I was hearing. “You’ll use him to your advantage? That’s no better than what Danzo wanted!”

    Hiruzen Sarutobi's mouth twisted into a frown. “I suspect it is far better than what Danzo wanted… Chizu… as Hokage, I have to make the best out of a horrible situation. If I were to throw caution to the wind and have Danzo killed tomorrow, the greater threat would still remain.”

    “A greater threat than someone who wants to take over the village for his own selfish ends?”

    “Yes,” said the Hokage. The frankness in his voice shocked me. “For if Danzo were to become Hokage, Konoha go through some profound changes, but she would most certainly survive. You heard the declaration Itachi Uchiha made… the reality is that the Hidden Leaf is in grave danger… and I must use every tool at my disposal to protect her.” He leaned heavily against the edge of the table and rested his head in his hands. “And that means using the Uchiha boy… I will see that Sasuke gets the best training we can offer him… He’ll need it. With luck, he will grow to be a valued, loyal Konoha shinobi. Of course that will probably require that he forget most of what happened here this afternoon… I’ll talk to the Yamanaka clan head… he may have some suggestions.”

    My fists were clenched and I was grinding my teeth. “This… this is unforgivable!” I shouted in his face. “I cannot imagine how you can expect anyone to follow you! Have you no honor?”

    Hiruzen Sarutobi tilted his head and looked me in the eye. “Sometimes Chizu, the only choices that are available to you are the objectionable ones… and yet… circumstances demand that you still must choose.”

    I had a choice then… to storm from the hall, try to find Sasuke, fight my fellow Leaf shinobi, and then go on the run with him, becoming a missing-nin... trying to raise him… find Itachi… or to meekly accept the decision of the Hokage.

    I am still asking the Gods if I made the right choice.

    Don’t think me a fool though, I sold my loyalty dearly. I made the Hokage swear that he would care for Sasuke, set guards squads made up of loyal shinobi to watch over him, give him a good upbringing, and not let either Danzo or anyone affiliated with the Shimura clan within a hundred yards of him.

    I then demanded that I myself would be able to join the hunter-nin who were going out to find Itachi… only I wanted the opportunity to try to bring him back into the fold. I knew my partner, he might seek vengeance for while... years maybe, but once I explained to him what had really happened, and with Sasuke’s well-being at stake… I doubt that he would be able to stay angry forever.

    The Hokage agreed to assign me to a top secret long-term mission to find Itachi under two conditions: 1) That I would tell no one about the things that I had learned and 2) If I did happen to find Itachi and I could not convince him to drop his vendetta and return to Konoha, I would make an honest attempt to kill him.

    I agreed to all the conditions. I told the Hokage that I would pack my things and leave right away. The Hokage quietly told me he thought that would be a good idea… Even in exile Danzo Shimura was a dangerous man.

    Except… I lied. I stayed a few extra days, to take the time to do two important things: First, I retrieved Mikoto’s letters from the hiding spot in my boot and mailed them. It was the least I could do for the Uchiha ghosts… I’m not sure what it says about me that I feel more loyalty to a dead woman that my Hokage right now.

    Second, I finished this entry. I am secretly hoping that this Hishyona Hyuga woman’s curiosity will be peaked by these letters received from her dead friend. I hope that she will use the information in them well. I hope that they will persuade her to seek out the truth. I hope…

    I hope that someone will be extremely clever and actually start questioning how things are run around here in the ANBU… and Konoha… I hope someone figures out all the lies and half truths…

    I hope someone finds this journal.

    I don’t know what will happen to me. Itachi-senpai was pretty mad, and he was very clear that he was going to kill us all. But an ANBU’s life is full of danger… ‘Treat every mission as if it were you last’ is what they tell us. This one is no more than most.

    It it all works out, I’ll have Itachi home within the year… if not… well then I really hope someone finds this book… and reads it and learns the truth.

    I wish I were braver. I’ve been tempted so many times just to take Sasuke and go, try to bring him to where Itachi is… but without finding some way to fix his mind, that would likely be a disaster waiting to happen.

    I wish I had the courage to shout this from the rooftops… tell everyone how corrupt the village leadership and council are. I wish I had the moral confidence to just let the truth be known and rest easy, assured that everything would turn out alright and the wicked would get their due.

    It wouldn’t though. I took a quick look through Uchiha town this morning. It’s been looted… Looted! The bloodstains are still fresh and a bunch of opportunistic bastards cleaned the whole place out. There was a huge two page ad in the Konoha daily news, about how ‘new growth would blossom out of tragedy’. The Hyuga banking cartel has offered to back the renovation project and the Watanabe clan has already started marking homes for demolition. It’s just business as usual. An entire clan was killed and everybody just shrugs it off… I’d like to think it’s because they believe the lie that Itachi went mad and killed his whole family… but really… it’s because everybody sees a golden opportunity with the Uchiha gone.

    Well, mostly gone… There’s still Sasuke… Sasuke who has no friends… no family… In saying my goodbyes to the Leaf before I left to find Itachi, I let my sentiment triumph over my caution and made an attempt to talk to the kid. He was coming back from the Academy late one night, doing extra training, far more that any eight year old should ever put themselves through. I purposefully bumped into him as he rounded the corner of an alleyway. He looked at me and there was no recognition in his eyes, only smouldering anger. For a second I thought he might try to attack me, but then he gave me a quick bow. “Excuse me, Mouse-san,” he muttered, dodging around me. It looks like the Hokage has gone through with his intention to turn Sasuke into a weapon to wield against Itachi...

    I’m sorry Itachi. I’m sorry Mikoto-san, Fugaku-san, Shisui, Sasuke-kun, Mari-san, Kei, and every other Uchiha whom I should have been able to do more for. This one little act of rebellion, writing it all down, is all I can manage right now… on my own.

    Grandma is right, being in the ANBU does tarnish you. It crushes your idealism. Leafing back to the beginning of this journal to when I first joined the corps, I thought I was going to be a hero and save my village… and now… I just scurry about in the shadows, trying to do what I can.

    Together, with Shisui and Itachi… I felt like we could take on the whole world… put things right… but now… now I’m alone.

    I couldn’t save everyone… I hope I can at least save my friend.

    -Chizu