Konoha Children's Crusade Chapter 38 Part 12

    Once I was convinced I lost my pursuers, I moved more slowly, keeping my size small and sticking to the shadows. Stealth would help me more now. If the ANBU were using poison, I could not afford to get a scratch from some long range attack.

    I was about a hundred meters away from Itachi’s family home when I heard the chase. The prey’s footsteps were small light and fast, pattering down the street, keeping ahead of a pack of heavier booted feet. Their quarry was fast, he flew by my hiding spot in a blur of arms, legs, and swept back mop of black hair. There was a hiss in the air as one of ANBU pursuers threw a shuriken. “Stop that!” said the gruff voice of the other, echoing down the street. “Danzo-sama said he wants the young ones alive!”

    I ducked out of my alley and followed them heading up and over the rooftops paralleling the street. The two ANBU were chasing a young boy. I could see the Uchiha crest stitched on the back of his shirt. The child was fast. He had good instincts, dodging this way and that to break up his assailants aim… but there was nothing he could do about the single ANBU coming up the street the other way, heading straight for him.

    The boy froze with panic, frantically looking back and forth as the ANBU who were originally chasing him slowed to a walk, closing in. “Give up now kid,” said the gruff voice. “It’ll be better for you if you don’t struggle.”

    I lept off the roof aiming for him. He crunched under my expanded boots. His partner, I grabbed and pulled in front of me, using him as a human shield as the third ANBU reached into his equipment pouch and launched a flight of kunai at me. I felt the jarring impacts through my arms as the knives tore into his flesh.

    Holding the bleeding ANBU in front of me, I charged. It felt like I flew across the ground, in no time at all I was next to my adversary. The guy was foolish enough to try to grapple with me! I scooped him up and slammed him down on the street before he could sort out his footing. As he lay there gasping on the paving stones, I knelt by his head. One punch was all it took.

    I dropped the twitching corpse and turned to the young boy. My initial fleeting impression of him was right… it was Sasuke. “Thank the Gods you’re safe!” I said in a relieved voice, holding out my hand to him.

    He didn’t say anything, he just stared at my bloody hand, his eyes as wide as saucers with raw fear. “Sasuke!’ I said again. “It’s me! Mouse! Itachi’s partner!”

    His brother’s name snapped him back to the moment. He eyed me warily. “Where is my brother?” he said cautiously.

    “I don’t know… I’m trying to find him.” When he hesitated again, I lunged forward, snagged his hand and started dragging him. “Come on!” I hissed. “We have to keep moving!”

    “Where are you taking me?”  he asked, pulling against me. He was trying to sound calm and collected and failing miserably.

    “Your parents’ house. Your brother and I got separated. I’m hoping he’ll be there.” We heard a shout that turned into a scream and I tossed him into an alleyway to hide. Fortunately, the ANBU patrol was heading in the opposite direction. We could hear their laughter fade with distance.

    Sasuke pulled on my hand and I looked down at him. “It’s awful Nezumi-san,” he whimpered, his resolve crumbling under the horrors of the night. “The village is under attack, and the attackers are disguised as ANBU! How can you tell who to trust?”

    I almost started to correct him and then decided that it was not the time nor the place to have this discussion. “Don’t worry, I can tell,” I said to reassure him. That statement did nothing to comfort me however… right then, the only other ANBU in Uchiha town I was sure I could trust was Itachi. I pulled Sasuke out of the alley. “Come… let’s see if we can find your family.”

    We finally made it to the manor house. It was quiet and dark. So much for finding reinforcements. I shut and barred the main gates, for all the good it would do us. Sasuke looked up at me with big owlish eyes. “There’s nobody here. Why are you locking us in?” Do you think they’ll try to attack Mouse-san?” He had a drawn kunai in his hand. I admired him. He was obviously terrified, but still willing to protect his house.

    I nodded. “They might. That’s why we’ll have to be quiet and fast… Have they taught you about basic mission supplies yet at the Academy?” He nodded. “Good. I want you to pack your gear, some food and extra clothes and then meet me back down here. One we find your brother and parents, the four of you may have to go somewhere safe for a while.”

    “Like the civilian shelters?” he asked me.

    “Maybe… maybe even farther away… that will be up for your father and Itachi to decide… Now go! Hurry!” Sasuke put on a brave face, took off his shoes and ran inside.

    I was such a coward. I couldn’t bear to tell him the truth of what was happening. I had no idea what I’d do if I couldn’t find his family. The only thing I could think of was to hide him overnight in my grandmother's barn and then take him somewhere else… I had no idea where. I tried to think of where I could take him, maybe leave him with someone trustworthy… and right then, the names on that list were two. I was here, and Itachi was missing.

    I stood on guard while Sasuke rummaged through his room. There is nothing worse than knowing that you are being hunted. Each noise made me flinch, whether it was a scrape of a leaf on the street outside, or the constant rhythmic clunk of the water chime next to the koi pond. I had all my senses stretched out to their limits… and that is why I heard it.

    The Uchiha house has a two story main building which serves as a living area for the Head of the Clan’s family and an elongated single story addition which Fugaku Uchiha uses as offices/clan meeting halls/function rooms… basically for clan business type stuff. Which is why hearing a single whimper from such a place would be unexpected.

    I could hear Sasuke opening drawers and dropping things, and I was sure that any ANBU that Danzo Shimura had brought along for this night’s murder would never whimper, so I went to investigate.

    Once again I found myself walking through the hallways of Itachi’s family home with my shoes on, although given everything that was going on, I was fairly sure no one would admonish me. I could hear the soft mewling sound of someone in constant pain. It was coming from behind a wide sliding door.

    The door itself was solid wood and carved all over with designs of dragons and Uchiha fans and many twists and turns of scroll work. I could hear faint whispers in the room beyond and an unending stream of muttered agony. “It burns… it burns… oh gods… Itachi… Fugaku…” I recognized the fevered voice of Mikoto Uchiha.

    I yanked open the door. Itachi jumped up and pulled out his tanto sword in one swift movement. “It’s me!” I said holding up my hands so he could see I was unarmed. “It’s me!”

    Itachi nodded and turned back to the limp body on the floor that was his mother. “It will be okay, Mikoto,” Fugaku was whispering to her as he stroked her hair. “It’s only Itachi’s partner… the Mouse… we’ll get you to a hospital and everything will be okay… just hang on…”

    Itachi turned his head enough to see me over his shoulder. “Chizu,” he said quietly, “do you have another one of those... special pills, like the one you gave Shisui?”

    I did, but I didn’t dare reach for them. “Itachi… I can’t… those pills increase chakra by increasing metabolism. Your mother’s been poisoned. If I give one to her, it will just speed up the rate the venom is going through her!” Itachi turned back to his mother and I watched his shoulders slump. He wasn’t going to move… not while she was alive.

    Which meant getting them out of here was now up to me. I ran over to the Uchiha family. “We have to get going!” I hissed to him. “Sasuke and I were being chased when we came here and there might be more of the ANBU coming. We can’t defend this place we have to go elsewhere!”

    Somehow, in her condition, Mikoto forced herself up on her elbows. “Sasuke?” she rasped. “He’s safe?”

    I gave a little shrug of my shoulders. “He’s here… I told him to pack some things, like he was heading out on a mission.” All three of them were staring at me and I started babbling, trying to explain why I had thought this was a good plan. “I thought more of your clan might have made a run for here… and we could have escaped together… But then I saw Sasuke being pursued and I…”.

    There was a scream and a clash of steel from the street outside. All four of us fell silent. The fight quickly stopped and we couldn’t hear more than a few spoken words and a rattling at the gate. “Damnit!” I swore, rising up. “I’ll deal with it.” I gave my partner a nudge as I ran out the door. “Get your parents prepped for travel as best as you can… we’re getting out of here.”

    I ran to the main gate, staying off the gravel path to avoid any obvious footsteps. I climbed the wall and very carefully peered over the top. There were three cloaked and masked ANBU waiting outside, talking quietly, examining the gate and keeping a careful watch on the walls and the surrounding street.

    I had to do something to get rid of them. Telling them to go away would just raise their suspicions. I broke the ears off of my mask to make it look more generic and climbed to the top of the gate. “Hey!” I hissed down at them. The trio looked up in surprise. “What are you doing making so much noise? You're going to frighten the cornered rabbits! Just come up and over!”

    They jumped the wall. “You found some Uchiha?” asked one in a lion mask.

    I nodded. “Six of them… hiding by the ornamental pool. There's a trapdoor or something. I saw them go down.”

    The one in the Owl mask gave me the vibe of being the leader, at least he was the one who waved the other two forward. “Any children with the group?”

    Children again? I decided to prod. To see if I could find out why that was important. “Two of them. Why?”

    He ignored my question. “No lethal force then. Soft takedown only,” he said to his squad before turning to me. “Show us this trapdoor!”

    I led them to the koi pond and made a big show of searching the lawn there. “It was right around here somewhere…” I puttered about mumbling to myself and pulling at random weeds.

    “Are you sure it was here?” asked Owl-san.

    I nodded yes. “It was, I swear! There must be a secret catch or something…”

    The other two knelt down and started to search with me. As we looked for that nonexistent trap door I wandered closer to Lion-san. “Hey,” I hissed. “What’s all this about ‘no lethal force’ for this particular bunch?”

    “The Commander issued special orders: No unnecessary killing of young Uchiha. We’ve got a special plan for them.”

    There was a giggle from my other side. The third ANBU, a lizard mask, had been listening. “Yeah… sharingan for us all!”

    “Shut it!” snapped the Owl. “You don’t know what her clearance is!” The other two stopped their search to stare at me.

    “Oh well, never mind then,” I said innocently.

    “You know,” said the Lion thoughtfully. “If we got one of the sensory type guys from B squad over here, we could find this trapdoor without her help…”

    I didn’t like the sound of that. “Hey! I found it!” I said acting like I was pulling on something. All three of them came over to look. I grunted as if I was straining. “Help me you guys! It’s heavy!”

    “Get out of the way,” snapped the Lizard. He and the Lion knelt down to get at the ground I was working at. Owl stood over them watching. When I first invited the three of them in, I was half wondering if it would be possible to trick them into leaving, but now… I took a few careful steps back, and got into position.

    My multisized arms slammed into them from the back and shoved all of them into the small pond. I held them there in the water. The pond wasn’t very deep but it was deep enough. Aside from the initial splash, killing them didn’t make very much noise, not with all of my bulk holding them face down in the muck.

    After their thrashing subsided, I left them there to be nibbled on by the carp and headed back to the house. Itachi’s mother was much worse. Her face was pale and her lips were tinged with blue. Every now and then she would go ragdoll limp in her husband’s arms. Itachi would frantically shake her, calling out her name and Mikoto would start to weakly struggle again.

    Itachi’s father was declining as well. It was all he could do to hold on to his wife. I touched Itachi on the shoulder. “I took care of the ANBU,” I murmured. “But there are bound to be more of them… they’re looking for survivors.” I glanced at his parents. “They’re looking for sharingan.”

    Just then Mikoto Uchiha had a particularly nasty tremor. She tried to say something, but it just came out as stuttering groan. Itachi tried to comfort her once more, “Mother... Just lie still…” but she refused to be calm.

    She waved vaguely at the far corner of the room and tried to speak. “Get the… You need to…” her body was wracked with a seizure. Her fingers curled into claws and her jaw clamped down tight.

    “Mother!” the strangled cry escaped through Itachi’s clenched teeth. Mikoto Uchiha’s eyes were wide open as she looked around the room wildly. Her pleading gaze fell first on her husband, next on her son, and then finally on me. Again she tried to speak and again nothing intelligible came out of her mouth. Finally with a deep sigh, her whole body relaxed. “Mother…” Itachi said, more desperately this time. She was still breathing, but it was fairly obvious it wouldn’t be for very much longer. My partner reached out and began to brush back the hair that was stuck to Mikoto’s forehead.

    Fugaku took his son’s hand and gently moved it away. “Enough,” Itachi’s father’s voice was weak, but full of resolve. “Mouse-san, I hope you will forgive me… but I must ask more from you this day… Take Sasuke… Keep him safe… you must flee with him.”

    That surprised me. I glanced at my partner. “What about you and Itachi?”

    The Head of the Uchiha clan sucked in a pained breath. “Itachi... will join you in a moment… he has a duty to take care of first.”

    There was a gasp from Itachi. He shuddered at first, and looked like he might cry, but then after a second he straightened. “Go Chizu,” he said, his hand reaching for his tanto blade. “Get my little brother. I’ll meet you by the main gate in a moment.”

    I went, trying not to think about what Itachi was about to do. I remembered how he told me once that it was the ‘primary duty of an Uchiha to destroy the sharingan of dead or dying clansmen, to ensure that they they are not abused.’ His parents were dying… slowly and painfully… and the longer he left them, the greater the chance their eyes would fall into the wrong hands…

    I found Sasuke in the kitchen, the full pack in front of him getting fuller as he tried to stuff some tomatoes and a small bag of rice into it. He started when I entered and then relaxed when he saw it was me. “Mouse-san? How many days of travel should I pack for?”

    “What you have is fine Sasuke. Hurry... Itachi is waiting.”

    His face lit up. “Itachi is here? Are Mother and Father with him?”

    I had to lie. Gods help me, I lied and that ruined everything. There was no way I could tell him the truth right then. “We’ll meet up with them later… right now the most important thing for the three of us is to get out of here… Hurry… We’re supposed to meet Itachi at the front gate.”

    Sasuke is a brave kid, he didn’t complain or whine, he did exactly as I said. He didn’t even say a word as we passed the three corpses in the ornamental pond. “Okay,” I said as we opened the gate and stepped outside the walls of his house. “Now we will…”

    A sixth sense made me duck. A slice of wind hummed through the air and chopped the center gate post in two… right where my head had been a moment before. About halfway down the street was another ANBU, cloaked, hooded and wearing a snake mask. I’d like to say that I didn’t freeze, but that fight with Orochimaru was too recent. I hesitated, just for a second. It was enough time for him to launch a second wind blade at Sasuke Uchiha.

    Have I mentioned yet that the boy has fantastic instincts? He’ll make a heck of a shinobi one day. He fell back, tucked and rolled back behind the safety of the house walls... leaving me the chance to focus my full attention on our attacker.

    I rammed my fingers in between the mortared cobblestones of the street and pulled up, tearing up a huge chunk of stone, big enough to hide behind, and skinning my fingers bloody in the process. I felt another wind blade hit my makeshift cover, and made an enormous fist, and smashed it through my wall, letting fly with a hail of stone fragments.

    My opponent was nimble, I’ll give him that. He jumped, dodged and twisted between the shower of rocks. Too bad he didn’t see that one cobblestone I was holding in my hand. I threw it at him when he was in the middle of a rather impressive jump, right when he didn’t have anything to push off of, after all that wild flipping around.

    That single stone hit him square in the back of the head. He fell in the middle of the street with a thump. I ran towards him, planing on making sure that he was going to stay down… but once I was about halfway there, I stopped. There was no point. Living people generally have more of a head.

    I went back to the ruined gate. Sasuke was gone. I quickly checked the main house but it was empty. In a panic I started running around the grounds looking for the kid, half whispering, half shouting his name. I had almost made a single circuit around the house when I heard the shriek.

    Sasuke had gone back to the house, but not the main part. I don’t know if he heard something, or smelled blood, but for whatever reason he had headed into his father’s office. He had seen his brother… giving his parents whatever mercy he still could.

    I collided with Itachi as he came running out. His ANBU uniform was spattered with blood and his hands were dripping. “You were supposed to watch him!” he half sobbed, half snarled.

    “I’m sorry,” I whined, helping him back up to his feet. “I had to fight off an attacker! Sasuke ran… I didn’t know it would be to the house!” Itachi didn’t answer, he just looked at me, tears streaming down his face, then he began to run. I followed him.

    “I promised,” he said as he ran. “I promised them that I would look out for Sasuke… that I would watch over him… It was the last thing I promised my mother and father…”  Itachi choked back a sob. “And I can’t even do that right!” He whirled and slammed his fist through a wooden storefront.

    My partner stood there silently crying, cradling his injured hand. Itachi Uchiha had reached his breaking point. On top off all the things I had seen that night, I couldn't bear to see him like this. I tried my best to comfort him. I put both my arms around his chest and rested my head next to his. “Hey,” I said quietly. “Cry later. Right now we need to find Sasuke and get him somewhere safe. There will be plenty of time to mourn once we’re far away from here.” Itachi rubbed at his eyes with hs good hand. He turned his head slightly and looked up at me… for a second I thought that we were going to kiss again.

    Neither one of us had time to react. A shadow detached itself from the rooftop and crashed into us, knocking Itachi to the ground and sending me stumbling backwards. The shadow stared at me, two sharingan glowing red like the fires of hell.

    Her hair was hanging loose in a huge mop and her once perfect makeup was now streaked with sweat and tears, but I recognized her just the same. Kei Uchiha.

    I felt the murder in her gaze. “You did this!” she snarled. “This is all your fault!” Her sharingan twisted and spun, and the tomoe transformed into a different shape… the same way Itachi and Shisui’s did when they used their ‘awakened’ abilities. I had just enough time to think ‘Oh shit!’ and start to assume a defensive crouch when she hit me.

    Her hair flew out like a many tentacled thing, like the shadow jutsu of the Nara clan. It twisted and grew and latched onto me. I tried to multi-size my way out of it by breaking the strands, but they seemed to be as strong as steel cables and cut into me. I tried shrinking to slip free, but Kei’s hair continuously tightened its grip.

    As I kicked and thrashed, trying to get free, Kei started to shout angrily at me. “My father is dead! My family is dead! My clan is dead! And you did this! You! You were the one who tricked Itachi! You were the one who betrayed him!”

    My vision was going dark at the edges. I groped at the hairs around my neck but I could find no purchase. Kei shook her head wildly. I could see red pearls of blood running down her cheeks like tears. “You don’t deserve a clean death… Strangulation is too good for you… much too painless… You deserve to burn!” She held me up not three meters away and started the hand signs for a grand fireball jutsu. She sucked in a deep breath…

    And coughed once. A small blossom of flame escaped from her lips. Her hair sagged and dumped me to the ground where I lay gasping for breath.

    Kei slowly turned to look behind her. I could see the short Tanto sword that went through her back and out her chest. “Why?” I heard her whisper. “I... loved…” She fell to the ground with a thump.

    Itachi knelt beside her and gently lifted her into his lap. He clenched his jaw and started to reach for her face. At first I thought that he was going to caress her cheek, but then his hand darted quickly forward. There was a soft popping noise and Itachi sighed heavily.

    I got up to my feet. I didn’t feel comfortable intruding on this moment, but I made myself go over to him. I tried not to look at Kei Uchiha’s face, but couldn’t help it. The two bloody holes where her eyes should have been reflected the moonlight above.

    My partner didn’t move as I approached, he just sat there staring blankly at his hand. “It’s not your fault, Itachi,” I said quietly.

    “It is entirely my fault,” he mumbled. “Each and every one... my fault.”

    I pulled him up to his feet. “Come on Raven,” I said, giving him a little shake. “We have to find your brother… he needs us.” I gave him a steady, but gentle push and got him running. His run started off weak and lifeless, but after a block or so he had his graceful movements back. You would have thought that he was back to being himself… right up until you looked into his eyes.

    The ANBU were piling the corpses up in the main square of the Uchiha district. Men on one side, women on the other, children in the middle. The only living Uchiha we saw were a small group of Academy age children unconscious and shackled against the far wall. Three girls and four boys. Sasuke Uchiha was one of them.

    The Lord Commander of Konoha’s ANBU was in front of this small gathering. “Seven? That was the best you could do?” he asked dryly.

    The ANBU next to him bowed in supplication. “I apologize Danzo-sama. The Majority of the Uchiha sought refuge in the hidden shrine you told us about. The adults were putting up a very formidable defense, so we used poison gas.” He bowed lower, his head almost scraping the ground. “We should have been more daring in our assault.”

    Danzo waved a hand. “It cannot be helped. It doesn’t change our ultimate plans, it just means that it will take that much longer to get a viable breeding program established.” He turned and walked back to the center of the square, back to the pile of corpses. He prodded one with the tip of his cane. “Prepare this lot for transport. I want everything gone in an hour.”

    I turned to Itachi. “Did you hear that?” I whispered. My partner didn’t even move, he was somewhere far away from here. I touched him gently on the shoulder and he flinched. I pointed to Sasuke and made the handsign command for ‘follow me’. Itachi absentmindedly nodded but followed me.

    I was starting to get worried that I was losing him. The Itachi I knew, the lieutenant that I had served with was always so professional, so unflappable… Right now he kept staring at the sorted pile of his fellow clansmen. This was not a good sign. I was praying to every God I could think of that he could just hold it together for a little bit longer.

    We made our way around the edge of the plaza, using shadows for cover. When we got close enough, I motioned for Itachi to put a genjutsu on me. Thankfully he had enough wherewithal to do that. I felt the skin tingling pull of chakra being molded around me. I shrank down to mouse size and crept to where Sasuke was bound.

    I was lucky the ANBU were using ordinary shackles as opposed to those new chakra restrainers that have just started appearing in the Hidden Mist village. I went down to my absolute lower limits, enough to get my hand inside the lock mechanism itself and start spinning tumblers.

    It was hard work and took too long. “Bring the children over,” I heard Danzo-sama order. I tried to go faster as the footsteps approached. Two squads of ANBU... I doubted I could fight them all.

    There was an icy chill in the air and a shadow solidified itself in the pale moonlight. The approaching ANBU lept back and drew weapons, eyeing the newcomer warily. “What’s this?” asked a deep basso rumble, full of arrogance. “I thought we had a very honorable agreement…’One that would mutually benefit all parties concerned’... I believe that is how you described it to me?” sneered Madara Uchiha. “You wouldn't possibly be thinking of betraying me now… would you Danzo-kun?”

    The masked man turned, carelessly showing his back to the ANBU, and started walking purposefully towards the seven chained children. A pointed metal rod slid out from his sleeve and landed solidly in his hand. He used the tip to casually lift up the face of the first unconscious child.

    The frozen ANBU looked back and forth between their commander and the masked man. Danzo Shimura’s mouth twitched in a disapproving frown. “Why do you hesitate?” he asked. “Kill him!”

    With that the ANBU attacked. There was a flight of shuriken and kunai that went right through him without the slightest effect. Madara sighed and turned to face his adversaries, not even making a pretense of dodging. Every blow missed its target. Three ANBU armed with katana charged him. They swung at his arms, his legs, his head. Nothing. “It’s a genjutsu!” one of them called. “The real one has to be around here…” As he turned his attention away, the metal post was driven right through his neck.

    Again the ANBU attacked. Madara blocked the first few blows with the sharpened spike and then just started ignoring them again. He strolled through the violence to the orderly rows of Uchiha dead. There was a swirl of energy around the eyehole of his mask and the sound of a howling gale. The Uchiha corpses on the pavement vanished.

    “It’s a dojutsu!” Danzo spat at his impotent ANBU. “He has to make himself solid before he strikes! Squad A, keep harrying him! Squad B, remove the prisoners!” A storm of shuriken and jutsu followed the ANBU commander’s words.

    Madara’s mask followed Squad B, as they flanked him. “Really Danzo… This is most tiresome… wouldn't it be more prudent for you cut your losses before you lose your other arm?” The masked man held up one hand. A huge forest of wooden stakes burst from the street. They tore their way through the ANBU heading for the captured children leaving a bloody ruin on the pavement. Madara apparently had mastered the wood style jutsu, just the same as Tenzo.

    The wooden spears twisted and turned towards the ANBU stabbing their way into Squad A. Madara Uchiha managed to butcher about half of the ANBU hounding him, when all of a sudden each and every one of his attacks was met and checked by a similar wooden buttress that sprang up out of the ground.

    Danzo-sama had done something to his right arm. It was no longer in its sling or bound up in bandages. It was free and casting its own wood style jutsu.

    He and Madara glared at each other as the wooden spears groaned and splintered against each other in a stalemate of force. “Do you know what the single largest failing of the Uchiha clan is?” the commander of the ANBU asked his opponent in a conversational tone. “Their pride… You think that no one else is as clever as you… as powerful as you… as special as you!”  he snarled. Danzo made a forceful pushing motion with his hand. His spears smashed Madara’s to kindling and sprang forward aiming for the masked man. They pounded the cobblestone where the Uchiha was standing.

    Then the debris and dust cleared, the man who called himself Madara Uchiha was revealed to be lounging atop a pile of splintered lumber. “Those powers you so proudly boast of… They aren’t yours… You stole each and every one of them.” The mask slowly shook from side to side as he made a soft ‘tsk’ sound. “The great Danzo Shimura… No more than a common thief. I’ll have to put an end to that.” He outstretched his hand again towards Danzo, and in preparation, the ANBU commander summoned forth an interlocking wall of trees as a defense.

    But it was just a feint, for instead of attacking Danzo, Madara swerved his hand to the side, pointing directly at me, directly at the Uchiha children.

    Spears filled the air, killing the first youngster in a fraction of a heart beat. There was a fast staccato of noise as the wooden stakes pinned them to the house walls. I twisted and grew, pulling out a kunai as I did so, praying that I’d be able to adequately protect Sasuke, willing to use my body as a shield for him if need be. They arched towards me and I braced for the impact.

    There was a loud crash and I was hit by a storm of stinging splinters that pierced my arms, my legs, my chest, but the deathblow I was expecting never fell. I opened my eyes and the world was awash in bright orange flame. For a second I thought I was dead and in hell. Then I heard his voice... as cold as the grave. “You did this… both of you... You shall pay!”

    I turned. There was Itachi, standing inside a giant skeleton alight with orange chakra. An enormous bony arm had slammed down in front of me and Sasuke, sparing our lives.

    My partner’s eyes burned red, flowing and twisting the way Shisui’s did, the way that Kei’s did… but this… this jutsu was unlike anything I had ever seen.

    The Skeletal apparition wavered for a moment and then vanished. Itachi fell to his knees, blood running freely down both of his cheeks. There was a moment of stunned silence. Then Madara ran for my partner. “Stop him!” bellowed Danzo. “He must not get that sharingan!” The few remaining ANBU charged.

    Once again I stood there, ready to die. My blade passed right through Madara, and the ANBU were right behind him. Using one huge hand, I scooped up both Itachi and Sasuke and lept backwards, desperately trying to find some means of escape.

    I only bought myself a few seconds. Madara was almost on me, reaching out for the brothers with one hand, and jabbing at me with another one of those metal spikes. I dodged the first thrust, blocked the second with my knife, but then his hand was almost on top of Sasuke…

    The masked man burst into black flame. He screamed, screamed in a way that sent icy fingers crawling down my spine. It was like two voices shrieking together in some off kilter blend of harmonic agony . He danced in a circle for a moment slapping at himself frantically. Then he jumped out of his skin.

    Literally, he jumped out of his skin. It was like he became two bodies, one flopping about weakly on the street, the other landing on a rooftop some distance away. I caught the briefest glimpse of a scarred face before he produced a new mask from a fold of his robe and slipped it over his face.

    While I was keeping an eye on Madara, Itachi was watching the approaching ANBU. A blast of dark power uncurled in the air and the charging ANBU went up like torches sputtering with black flame.

    Both Danzo and Madara turned and started attacking Itachi. The air rippled in front of Madara and a huge number of fuma shuriken came spinning out of the vortex. Danzo’s hands flashed through a series of hand signs, and a howling gale spurted from the ANBU commander’s mouth, formed into a long, sharp cone and rocketed at my partner.

    The orange flames leapt around him again. The skeleton grew into a towering three armed giant. In one hand was a sword, in the other a small round shield. Both Shuriken and wind attack shattered on the giant’s skin.

    Itachi laughed. He had both hands pressed up to his eyes, wet with red blood, and he laughed at them. It was not a pleasant sound. The giant’s sword flicked out, aiming for Madara.

    There was a huge crash and a flurry of tiles were picked up from the roof and fell on the surrounding buildings. Madara just stood there as the sword impacted his body, expecting it to pass right through I guess… he was very wrong. His right arm went spinning off into the courtyard and landed with a splat. Madara screamed. There was a sudden distortion of shadow and a pop of displaced air… he was gone.

    Another round of wind attacks smashed against the giant’s chest. This time it actually seemed to take some damage, some of the ‘flesh’ peeled away revealing the skeleton beneath. Itachi cried out and the giant swung the sword. I saw it go right through the commander of the ANBU, splitting him from the top of his head all the way down through his groin. I swear I saw the two halves of Danzo Shimura fall to the street… where they shimmered and vanished.

    The ANBU commander re-appeared about two meters to the left of where the Giant had struck. Danzo was on his hands and knees, shaking and panting. The giant lifted the sword again and swung at the man, but in the middle of the blow Itachi grabbed at his own head and screamed. I asked him if he was alright, what was wrong, but he never answered me. He simply curled up in a ball, clutching at his eyes. The burning giant faded around him.

    The pall of silence was broken by a soft breeze. “You there!’ croaked Danzo Shimura. It took me a moment to figure out that he was talking to me. “Finish him off!” I looked at Itachi and then turned back to the commander of the ANBU staring incredulously. “Obey this order as if it comes from the mouth of the Hokage himself!” he snapped. “If you value the safety of your village, you will kill the Uchiha now!”

    It was no choice. I pulled out a kunai and hurled it with all my strength at Shimura-san’s face. It was not much of a surprise to me when a wall of wood sprang up to block my knife. The last thing I saw of him that night was the ANBU commander’s scowling face. When I ran to the other side of the wall… he was gone.

    I walked back to Itachi, we was still curled up in a ball, but at least his breathing was more even. I reached down to help him up… and promptly fell back on my butt when he shoved me away, hard. “Get away from me!” he snarled, one hand still pressed over his eyes.

    With the battle over, all the bruises and injuries I had been ignoring started clamoring for my attention. “Itachi,” I said to him gently and reached out again thinking he might be disoriented or blinded, he was so obviously in pain.

    He shoved me a second time. “Leave me alone!”

    That hurt, but given all that he’d been through this night, I could understand his reaction. I took several deep breaths to clear my head and wearily went to check on Sasuke. He was alive, thank the Gods. With all of our enemies gone, I finally had the time to get him out of those damn shackles. It took twice as long as it should have… my fingers were starting to bleed again by the time I finished.

    I gathered up the unconscious Sasuke. “So… what now senpai?” I said turning to Itachi. My partner had vanished… just like Madara and Danzo.

    I had no idea where he went, I only knew I had to find him. I picked up the unconscious Sasuke and headed back to the last place I had found my mentor when I was looking for him… His family home.

    It took twice as long as it should have for me to get there. My right leg was stiffening up and I was shocked to find a senbon sized sliver of wood embedded in my thigh. Painfully, I hobbled my way up the front steps. “Itachi?” I called. Nothing. I walked through the kitchen and the lower level sitting room. “Itachi?” I called again. I gave up on the main house and moved my way to the all one level addition.

    I thought I heard something scrabbling about in the official clan study. “Itachi?” whatever was in there stopped moving at the sound of my voice. I hesitated to bring Sasuke in there, even if he was unconscious…  I didn’t want him to have to be in the presence of the bodies of his parents, so I left him curled up on the outside walkway before I slid open the door.

    It was a cat, standing on the top of a large desk in the corner of the room, a mouse hanging limply from its jaws. We stood there staring at each other for a second before the animal leapt up to the sill of an open window and then jumped outside. There was a rustle of vegetation and then dead quiet. The only sound I could hear was my own breathing and the faint drip of blood as it worked its way through the floorboards.

    I am an ANBU. We do not believe in the supernatural. I do not put stock in omens, not like grandma does, but right then… in that house… in that room… with the departed souls of Itachi's parents and surrounded by the no doubt angry ghosts of an entire clan… I started to pray under my breath. I begged the Gods and whatever spirits might be listening to not take out their rage on me. I promised that I would go to all four temples and light incense for them every day for a year. I promised that I would find justice for them, that I would do my best to finish for them whatever tasks they had left in this world. I hurriedly turned back to the door, trying desperately not to take in the scene and failing miserably.

    Fugaku Uchiha was lying lifelessly across his wife Mikoto. Itachi had done a quick clean job out of it… a single thrust at the base of each skull. He’d even closed their eyelids to hide the lack of sharingan. You’d never know that they were not sleeping.

    I started to shut the door, but something about this death display stopped me. Mikoto’s arm was stretched out to the side and upwards, her pointer finger extended as if she was inviting someone to take a look at the desk in the far corner of the room. It didn’t seem like a natural way to go… pointing at the furniture like that. I thought back to how she was struggling earlier, trying to tell us all something as the poison took a hold of her body. I wondered if I should investigate… If she was trying to pass me a message from beyond the grave. I checked quickly on Sasuke, saw he was still out cold, decided that he would be fine for a while longer and went back to search the desk.

    There were six drawers. Five of them contained random bits and pieces… an ink block, old brushes, a series of old Academy tests of Itachi’s where he got straight A’s, old letters from someone named Hishyona. The sixth drawer was locked. I opened the drawer above it halfway and shrunk down as tiny as I could go. That small, it was easy to go up and over the back and land inside the locked drawer. It was full of crumpled up ryo notes, letters and an old sketch book.

    I didn’t know her very well, but I was pretty sure that Mikoto Uchiha wouldn’t have spent her last minutes worrying about money. I checked the letters first. They were all addressed to a Hishyona, who I assumed was the same Hishyona whose return correspondence I had found in that other drawer. I looked quickly through the sketchbook. About half of it was charcoal drawings of people and places around the Uchiha district. There were portraits of Fugaku, Itachi and Sasuke. There was a scene from their garden with the Hokage monument in the background… the other half of the book was illustrations of old artifacts. Vases outlined with designs of tomoe, broken statues of mythical demons... complex designs picked out in a wall mosaic… there was a very detailed display of a stone slab/sarcophagus type thing covered with weird writing and Uchiha fan symbols.

    I shut the sketchbook and went back and skimmed the letters… they were more interesting. They detailed bits of life in the Uchiha district, they told about secrets and how the Uchiha had been abused… it was obvious that Mikoto valued the friendship of this Hishyona person very highly… I looked back and forth between the the pages and the notebook, trying to decide which would mollify a wrathful specter more.

    In the end I ended up taking the letters. I doubted that Mikoto Uchiha would have thought the old art book was so important and at least I could shove the single pages one by one out of the locked drawer. Once outside, I folded them and out of habit, shrank them down and lodged them in the secret compartment in the sole of my boot, just as if there were some sort of top secret stolen documents.

    I then gathered up Sasuke and resumed my search for Itachi. Wherever he had gone… it wasn’t home. My head was pounding and my body was aching with exhaustion. I spent far too long frozen by indecision but finally decided that the best thing to do would be to take Sasuke to the hospital. I didn’t think he had been poisoned, but given how long he had been unconscious for, I wanted someone to make sure.