It's not easy writing a fic with a consistently heavy atmosphere, so I'm putting my cards on the table and offering a choice to you, the readers. This is the first time I've started a fic while another is ongoing, the hiatus on Rise of Karagakure aside. I don't intend on writing two fics at the same time however, so if any of you want to see more of what's going on in this fic be sure and let me know. I'm only going to continue this fic if it seems enough people want me to, so be sure to drop a message or a review if you want me to keep writing this. In accordance to that, I really hope you enjoy this first of hopefully many chapters in a fic that's a move out of the norm for me.
The boy from out of town
A small battery powered fan whirred diligently, setting out a cool breeze that was the one comfort Hogane Kotetsu had in this damn job. Well, the shade was nice. Didn't make things any less stifling though. He pushed back on his chair, leaning on only two legs, rocking back and forth and waving the fan across his neck and face. There was no doubt about it. Summer sucked and all that it stood for sucked to. Revolution against summer!
It was at that point that Kotetsu switched off his fan and stared blankly at the ceiling of the small booth he was housed in. Revolution against summer? What the hell was that supposed to mean? He was losing all his sensibilities in this heat, and sitting still like this just made the whole thing worse. So he dropped the fan on the desk and got up off his ass. Then he stepped out of the booth, and promptly set to leaning against it. Much better.
Normally Kotetsu would have his buddy to complain to, but Kamizuki Izumo was away taking care of some other business this morning. That pissed him off a great deal. He just knew Izumo was somewhere cool right now, drinking an ice tea and looking outside, laughing his ass off at the notion of Kotetsu being stuck here on damn guard duty without so much as a warm soda!
"Lucky bastard… when I get my hands on him…!"
"Sounds like someone's in for a bad time."
Kotetsu looked up to the one who had spoken to him. Some guy stood there with a couple of water bottles in his hand. He was a ninja, no doubt about it. The guy tossed one of the bottles to Kotetsu, who caught it without taking his eyes off the newcomer. He recognised the guy, but he was just having trouble putting a name to a face. Inari? Isari? Oh, of course! It was Inabi.
"Thanks." Kotetsu said, opening the bottle and taking a drink from it. Inabi stepped inside the booth and took a seat at the chair that was usually Izumo's. That struck Kotetsu as odd, but he didn't pay it too much attention. Protocol dictated that there were always at least two guards at the main gate. If anything, what was strange was the guy they picked to replace Izumo. "I've never seen them send an Uchiha down for guard duty."
Uchiha Inabi passed a smirk at Kotetsu while he unscrewed the lid to his water bottle. "Yeah well don't think I'm here to make your life easier ok buddy?" he remarked. The two of them took a swig out of their bottles at the same time, down to the wiping of the mouth with their sleeves immediately after. "To tell the truth I did myself a little injury out in the field a week ago. The doc told me to rest, but I can't stand sitting around doing nothing, so I got assigned here to fill in for the usual guy."
Kotetsu chuckled privately. "If you took this job because you hate sitting around, I got bad news for ya." He put his bottle down on the table and wandered a little away to take a look through the gates even though he knew no one was coming. "All we gotta do is stay within thirty yards of the gate and inspect whatever's coming and going. And I hate to say it, but south side hasn't been seeing a lot of traffic lately."
Inabi hummed his acknowledgement of what Kotetsu was saying, but he was already unfurling the newspaper Kotetsu had been reading earlier. It was a tabloid piece that no normal person would take seriously. But sometimes there were secrets hidden in these things, hints about goings on in the outside world that didn't make sense to the broadsheet journalists. It was funny how the paranoid conspiracy theorists seemed to think in similar veins to ninja. Funny, but kind of disheartening.
"Rice Paddy is Making Some Noise?" Inabi read aloud with a curious cock of the brow.
"You've heard the rumours about the Sound Village right?" Kotetsu asked when he returned to the booth to find Inabi looking at the very article he'd read an hour ago. "Rice Paddy was looking at civil war when a band of ninja swept in and cleaned up the whole mess. Their Feudal Lord was so overjoyed he let them build their own ninja village. Now they're even changing Rice Paddy's name to "Sound Country"."
Inabi stared at Kotetsu, waiting for the part he didn't already know. "Yeah? So?"
"Well they're making a big deal about it because no one actually knows anything about this band of ninja." Kotetsu shrugged. It wasn't his theory and he wasn't gonna bother defending it. "Don't know where the village is, who's running it or even how they're getting their mail. According to that column there Sound Country is communicating with Sound Village via birds trained in encrypted Morse code."
Inabi started laughing loudly and picked up the paper again. He had to give that article a read, even if it was a load of garbage. While he busied himself with that Kotetsu took another round along the breadth of the gate, looking both ways for signs that he would have more company soon. There were still no signs of anyone coming into the village, but a small group of children were running his way from the main street. Whistling out to Inabi, the two of them stood in front of the gate and halted the children when they arrived.
"Hold on there, where do you think you're all going?" Kotetsu asked. There was no rule stating that children couldn't step outside the village walls, but it was generally ill advised that they do so unattended. It was part of his job to at least make sure they weren't going to do anything dangerous. "Do your parents know you're coming out here?"
"Yes!" the children chimed in unison. The one of them, a fair haired girl in overalls, stepped forward. "We're going out to hunt for cicadas!" she announced, while her friends brandished nets and small cages to make sure Kotetsu and Inabi didn't miss them. "We won't go far and we'll be back before noon, ok?"
The odd mix of responsibility and informality carried in the girl's explanation made Kotetsu grin. He couldn't resist teasing them a little. "Sure thing, we just gotta check you first!" he said, demonstrating his substitute partner with a hand. "Inabi-san, would you do the honours?"
Inabi cast his eyes at Kotetsu and the gate keeper's grin faltered a bit. Inabi didn't say anything however and instead put his focus towards the children. "Hands in the air!" he instructed. The children quickly responded to the authority in his tone, raising their hands so fast they clapped together. Inabi darted his eyes over them all and nodded the all clear. He and Kotetsu stepped aside, and the children rushed out as quickly as they'd come.
Kotetsu kept an eye on them until they ran out of sight and into the trees. Afterwards he looked back at Inabi, who had returned to the booth and picked up the newspaper again, reading without the enthusiasm he had amounted a minute ago. Kotetsu headed over to the booth and leaned in, watching the Uchiha curiously.
"I gotta be honest; I was hoping you'd give them a little scare with that Sharingan." He said with a flat expression.
"I know what you wanted." Inabi replied, flicking through the newspaper for something that caught his attention and wasn't related to Sound Country. When he found nothing but drivel he put the paper down and decided to level with Kotetsu. "You might not know this, but the children of the village are already afraid of the Uchiha enough without the Sharingan."
As it turned out Kotetsu did not know this, as was indicated by the look of surprise on his face. "I know you guys have a reputation for being kinda on the stiff side, but don't you think you're exaggerating a little?"
Pinching his brow, Inabi sighed. "You don't spend much time around the average villagers, do you?" he rhetorically asked, before explaining further. "I'm sure you're aware that the reputation of the Uchiha clan has been suffering for a while now. There was even talk about restricting us in order to keep an eye out for any trouble."
"You talking about the Kyuubi Conspiracy?" Kotetsu asked, straightening up with a smile. "You're not still hung up on that are you? I'll admit when I heard about the accusations against the Uchiha I had a hard time staying unbiased. But the Godaime himself is vouching for your clan. That's good enough for me."
Inabi nodded his head and gave his own wistful smile. "The Godaime has certainly put a lot of faith in us, but that doesn't mean the rest of the village does." He said morosely. "Sadly when a large demonic entity wreaks havoc on your home it's expected that you become paranoid about it. Even if people aren't allowed to publically stand against us, there's nothing stopping them from warning their children away from the possible demon harbingers."
There was nothing Kotetsu could say against that, even if he didn't like it. "This might sound strange coming from someone like me, but I kinda think the ninja arts as a whole ought to be treated a little more like that." He admitted, earning a surprised look from Inabi. "Look at Kirigakure. It's in a bad state right now because the Mizukage was allowed to do whatever he wanted. I thought the reason we ninja existed was to keep strife out of the lives of our fellow man, but you give the wrong man too much power and suddenly the tables turn. I just think it'd be better if the people didn't depend on us so much."
He shrugged to himself as he concluded his opinion. He was right, Inabi thought. That was strange to hear coming from someone like him. It was comforting nonetheless. He had never even considered the possibility that the mistrust the Uchiha received could be interpreted in any way as a good thing. While he wasn't sure he agreed with it, the notion did at least take some of the weight off his mind. "Make sure the higher ups don't catch you saying that." He remarked with a smirk. "Any downsizing goes on and you'll be the first person they think of."
It was Kotetsu's turn to laugh aloud this time. He backed off again to do another round of the gate, but he stopped quickly when he looked off to the distance. "Well we've all got jobs now, so on your feet soldier!" he said, pointing to the road outside the village. "We've got company!"
Inabi left the booth and joined Kotetsu in looking off to the distance. Just a little closer than a kilometre away there was indeed something heading in what was irrefutably their direction. It was a single wagon pulled by a single horse, led by a single rider by the looks of it. By all standards Inabi was disappointed. He was hoping for at least a trade caravan.
After a few minutes of waiting on the steady trot of the horse-pulled wagon, the guards were finally able to do their jobs. They approached the wagon as soon as it passed over the gate, meeting with the old man holding the reins. He was an odd fellow with a depressing sort of face and body. Small, wrinkled and with unbelievably thick grey eyebrows that actually seemed to weigh his forehead down at the sides, giving him a perpetual expression of sadness matched with his droopy jowls. He wasn't the only thing old here. The horse had seen its better days and the wagon looked like it would be put to better use as the primary component to a bonfire.
"Travel papers please sir." Kotetsu said. The old man had his papers at the ready and handed them out. It was Inabi who accepted them, letting Kotetsu take the lead on the verbal procedure while he studied the papers for any signs that they could be doctored. "Please state your name, business and cargo."
"Oh my name is Aikibito Hishigata." The old man explained, in as sad a voice as one would expect with a face like that. "I'm here to trade my wares."
"Uh huh, and what would those wares be?"
"Oh, diamonds."
Inabi stopped his reading to look up at the old man, wearing as incredulous an expression as Kotetsu was. Kotetsu however was the first to recover, and did so with a smile. "Diamonds huh?" he asked sceptically. "Man I must be out of the loop old man. Since when were diamonds in such abundance that you can't even afford decent wheels to carry them along?"
"Oh, diamonds are still plenty valuable smartass." The old man replied in a heartbeat. "It's just cheaper to put an old man on a busted wagon than hire mercenaries to guard your wares and hope they don't get greedy. Where I come from they don't have any of you ninjas, so we gotta make do with what we got. Now are you gonna let me do my job or are you gonna make me climb down off this thing so I can kick you in the nuts?"
"The papers check out." Inabi said, trying to restrain a smile.
"Easy old timer, you can be on your way in a minute!" Kotetsu said with a sharp grin and a peaceful display of his palms. "We've gotta do our job first alright? Now before we check out the wagon, is there anyone else travelling with you right now?"
The old man took back his papers and scratched his chin for a second. "Yeah, there's a boy that hitched a ride from the last town over." He said, jerking his thumb back the way he had come. "Seemed pretty set on getting over here, and he paid me fare for the journey, so I let him sit on the back. My wares are well disguised, and I got a crossbow under here, so there were no worries."
While he rambled on Inabi went around to the back of the wagon to see this boy. But he didn't see anybody sitting at the back like he expected, nor did he see anyone when he looked inside the wagon. When he returned to the front he did so with a frown, wondering if the old man was messing with them. "There's no one back there." He said.
The old man suddenly gave out a chortle that added a tally to the running check of how off his rocker he really was. "Oh I didn't think you would!" he cackled, pointing dead ahead with his sad face full of merriment. "You're not looking in the right direction!"
Startled, Kotetsu and Inabi whipped their heads toward the village. Sure enough they saw a boy walking with his back to them, with no possible origin other than the gate they were guarding. That wasn't all however. It was one thing to understand a boy of his age being unaware of gate checks. But it was another thing entirely if the boy just so happened to be carrying a sword on his back. That they could not let off lightly.
"Hey! You!" Kotetsu called out, rushing to catch up with the boy. The boy looked back at him and shocked Kotetsu with a vicious smirk, before he suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a trail of smoke. The only words forming in Kotetsu's mind then were "oh shit". Luckily his mouth collected itself better. "Inabi! Follow him!"
Inabi didn't need telling twice. In an instant his black eyes turned to a bright shade of red as the Sharingan became active. The next instant, there was no Inabi in sight at all. That left Kotetsu cursing himself for letting the boy get past him, and the old man recovering from his high of watching the ninja get duped.
"Looks like your boss is gonna kick your balls for me."
Somewhere off to the distance the bell tower rung, marking the time as four o'clock. The noon sun cast the village in a relaxing orange hue, perfect for winding down after a long day of work. Well, if you were a student at the ninja academy anyway, like a certain someone.
Uchiha Sasuke took a stroll down Autumn Avenue, where the trees were always at their best in the crispness of fall. On this evening however the green leaves flourished brilliantly, casting a soothing shade over Sasuke as he walked beneath them. He had an appointment to be somewhere, but he walked at a casual pace, in no hurry to get where he was going.
Today marked the start of the exam period in the ninja academy. All over the village aspiring ninja had been putting their studies to the test in order to ensure they would keep their spot for the next year. Some of the less hopeful ones were also preparing to take the police examinations on the chance that they didn't get to move on to the next year. Sasuke was not one of those people. He knew he'd be among the top of the class before exam period was even announced. And if today was any indicator, he was right to believe that. By all standards he was certain he'd at least be second best, if not first. Though in honesty, he hadn't been first in a few years now. A certain someone had routed that title away from him. Not that he minded.
A short while later found him out of the trees and into the urban environment, bordering the edge of the district known as the Uchiha Compound. Though that place was home for Sasuke, it was not his destination at this current time. Instead he headed for a place close to the compound. One of the most important buildings in a square mile that was in many senses a second home to Sasuke. He ascended the stone steps and opened the door, entering into the Konoha Military Police Force.
He crossed through the reception room without stopping, whistling out to the guy sitting behind the desk. One of the older members of the clan, Uchiha Yashiro, grinned and waved at Sasuke, who returned the gesture in passing. "Nice to see they're keeping you busy Yashiro-san!" he called out even while reaching out to the door to the stairwell.
"Yeah just wait until you enter into the world of paper work brat!" Yashiro shouted back, demonstrating his workload with a flourish of his pen. Sasuke laughed as he entered in the current pass code on the security door and left Yashiro to his busy work.
He climbed the stairwell with good speed, always looking out through the glass walls at each floor to see what the other members of the force were up to. Each floor had its own department that focused on certain areas of illegal behaviour. The busiest department was vice, which dealt with situations of moral crimes like illicit trading of narcotics or gambling. Thankfully the department that saw the least action was homicide, but it still had a few detectives walking its halls, looking over case files and such. It was all a smooth operation, led by the Police Chief Uchiha Fugaku. Sasuke's father.
It didn't take long to reach the top floor, where the head honcho's office was located. Sasuke stepped into the well furnished corridor and made a beeline for his father's office, just as he had many times in the past. He'd been here so often as a kid that when he reached the polished door with his father's title embossed upon the frosted glass, he reached for the handle without even knocking.
"-Just think you could use a little more diversity in the squad."
Sasuke halted just before turning the doorknob. He recognised the voice of someone who was not his father yet was within his father's office. He knew who the person was, but he was having trouble attaching a name to a face. After a few seconds of thought he gave up and- Aoba! That was it, Yamashiro Aoba. Well in any case he took his hand away from the knob and decided to do a little sporadic reconnaissance practice. In other words, he pressed himself against the wall and shamelessly eavesdropped on his father's discussion.
"I understand your views but I have already chosen who will take the position in Yashiro's place."
The sound of his father's voice caused a curious look to befall Sasuke's face. He had found it strange that Yashiro was down in reception when that had never been his official position, but he'd chalked it down to some injury or other keeping him from field duty. The guy wasn't much older than Sasuke's father, and he was too hard a worker to just get demoted. So what exactly were they talking about in there?
"With all due respect chief the candidates I've shown you have a better service record than the one you've selected. You realise that people still call the squad the "Uchiha Special Forces" right?"
A slight chuckle escaped Sasuke's lips at that moment. So that was what this was about? The special forces unit? Well it was only natural that the unit was full of Uchiha. Sasuke remembered the force when it was first created four years ago. There wasn't a single person in that unit that didn't come from the Uchiha. And since it was headed by his father, who also headed the clan itself, wasn't it only natural that the unit would consist of Uchiha? That Aoba guy had to have a screw loose if he didn't see that much.
"Alright Yamashiro-san, I'll take a look at the candidates' files. Now if you don't mind, my son is waiting for me outside."
Sasuke smiled sheepishly to himself. Shortly after the door opened and Yamashiro Aoba stepped out, spotting Sasuke next to the door right away. He tipped his nonexistent cap politely and went down the hall to his own office. With the coast clear Sasuke entered into his father's office. "Trouble with the liaison?" he asked, closing the door behind him.
The office of Police Chief Uchiha Fugaku was in many ways an inversion of the Hokage's office; a place Sasuke had had the opportunity of visiting but once in his life thus far. Deep blue walls lined with filing cabinets and book cases, wall scrolls bearing the Uchiha clan emblem hanging on either side of the door and tall fern trees on either side of the bay window overlooking the village. It was there, sitting behind a grand oak desk, that Sasuke's father was seated.
Uchiha Fugaku reclined in his chair, holding a file in his hand and looking at it, but not really reading it. "Yamashiro-san makes a good point." He said, glancing over the pictures of the candidates that had been given to him by Aoba. "It can be difficult to assure the villagers that the Special Forces unit has everyone's best interests at heart when all the members of that unit are allied to a single clan before the Hokage."
"Hmm?" Sasuke hummed with vague disinterest. He stood by one of the bookcases and glanced over the many thick ring binders that lined the shelves. Not one of them had a discernible way for him to tell what was inside. They were all coded with a character that he was sure only those who need to knew, knew. "And I guess it's got nothing to do with the fact that Aoba reports directly to the Hokage, right?"
Fugaku looked up from the file to his son, who was currently running a finger across the surface of the shelf. He had half a mind to throw a book at the cocky brat when he had the audacity to check his finger for dust, but he restrained himself. "All Yamashiro-san is doing is making sure that the Police Department stays allied to Konoha above all else." He said, setting down the file for later reading. "I know you don't want to hear it, but not so long ago there was a time when the Uchiha's interests conflicted with Konoha's. We should be thankful to the Hokage for managing to resolve the situation without bloodshed."
Sasuke had no remark for this, for he had no understanding of the matter his father was referring to. He had at one time noticed a great tension in the Uchiha that had made him very nervous around five years ago. It coincided with a time that his elder brother had begun acting strangely. But before he knew it the tension died, and things seemed to return to normal. It had never bothered him since, so he never asked.
In his son's silence Fugaku rose from his seat and walked around the desk, leaning upon it and watching his youngest wander the room and do everything in his power not to meet his father's gaze. But Fugaku's steady stare had the effect of drawing Sasuke to the centre of the room, where he locked eyes with the ceiling fan directly above him. Fugaku crossed his arms and added a stern expression.
"So how did your first exam go?" he asked firmly.
Sasuke gave an overzealous shrug while keeping his attention glued to the rotating fan. "They start off with the easy ones and work their way up in difficulty to test how we handle the pressure." He responded, slipping his hands in his pockets and rocking on the balls of his feet. "Ninja history. You could've broken both my hands and I still would have finished with time to spare."
Fugaku gave a sagely nod. He had spent the past few months quizzing Sasuke at random intervals about various aspects of ninja history. From the very beginning Sasuke had made sure never to fail to answer a question, out of a slight fear of Fugaku that Fugaku felt was necessary considering Sasuke's future line of work. At the same time however Sasuke had never had trouble answering his father's questions. Fugaku was concerned that Sasuke was perhaps too bright for his own good.
"And your standing in the classroom?"
"I'm the top male student of the class."
"Just top male?" Fugaku enquired with a raised brow. His son's shoulders dropped suddenly, and Fugaku turned up the strictness in his voice. "Sasuke."
The call was a command, and a command Sasuke obeyed. He lowered his eyes from the ceiling fan and met his father's, showing an obstinance and an embarrassment that told Fugaku volumes. "The top student overall would be the top female student of the class." Sasuke confessed. There was a flicker in his eyes that was in some strange way both cool and testy at the same time. "Haruno Sakura."
Fugaku gave a slight inclination of the head that he knew well enough was driving Sasuke nuts. Sasuke shared a class with a good number of students. From what Fugaku knew there was one other Uchiha including Sasuke in that class, and one from each of the other major clans in Konoha. That didn't even take account for the students from minor clans, students with one or two ninja as parents or even those from a complete civilian background. Yet funnily enough there was only one name that Sasuke ever brought up when it came to talking about school. That name was of course, Haruno Sakura.
"You know you'll never impress her if you don't surpass her." Fugaku said with a growing smirk. He folded his arms while Sasuke scowled at him and gave him a casual look that no doubt irritated his son even further. "Honestly I'd prefer you choose someone from your own clan. But I can see there's no convincing you, so I'll just wish you my best instead."
By the look on Sasuke's face Fugaku could tell that without that bit of fear his son had of him he might have been on the other end of a very loud denial. Instead, and wisely so, Sasuke brushed off his father's implication and shifted the subject in a more, if only by a little, favourable direction. "That girl's a workaholic." He said with an aloof gesture. "If she's not coming in with some new injury she's coming in from an all-nighter of studying whether there's reason to or not. She's obsessed."
"Obsession isn't always such a bad thing." Fugaku commented. "It's the opposite extreme of total apathy. The difference is obsession gets things done."
A gap of silence passed between father and son as no impression was made upon Sasuke by his father's questionable insight. He had a feeling his father was making more of a remark about Sasuke's behaviour than his classmate's, but Sasuke wasn't particularly introspective. "So why did you call me up here?" he asked, moving on to the main subject. "I was surprised when Mizuki-sensei handed me that note."
Fugaku straightened up and stepped around his desk again, this time standing in front of the window. He gestured with Sasuke to join him, and once his son was also looking out to the village he started to speak. "Your mother doesn't approve of me talking about such things, but it's something I think you need to know." He said, looking towards the Hokage Monument in the distance. "Before I say anything I need your word that you will tell no one about what I'm about to say. This never leaves this room or goes further than you and I."
With his curiosity piqued, Sasuke gave his father a frown. "I promise." He said.
"Good." Fugaku gave a sigh. It was a tough topic he wanted to discuss. "You've been informed about the Kyuubi Conspiracy, correct?" Sasuke nodded. "Eleven years ago the fox attacked. In its wake there were a lot of questions asked and suspicions raised. The three most popular theories were that the Kyuubi simply broke free, the container released it, or it was forcibly removed by those with the power to do so."
"Uchiha being the foremost group of interest." Sasuke chimed, rolling his eyes. He already said he knew about this didn't he?
"Correct. However it was years before these accusations were made public. Even so, when that happened the Uchiha were backed into a corner. And as you may know, the Uchiha aren't known for being the submissive type." Sasuke smirked. "Five years ago I and the rest of the Uchiha were planning a coup against the village. We would take over and assert ourselves as dominant." He closed his eyes for a sentimental moment. "In hindsight that was a brash move that could have destroyed us all."
"And then the Hokage swooped in with a peace negotiation and a nice budget increase to the Police Force." Sasuke said, as if he'd said it a hundred times already.
"Not quite." Fugaku replied. He shot a sharp look at Sasuke that shut the boy up and told him not to speak disrespectfully as he was. "It wasn't that easy for either side. We would have gone ahead with the coup if the Godaime hadn't confronted us on our own territory. It was at that time that he revealed his knowledge of our plans and his wish to avoid bringing civil war to the village."
Sasuke gave his father an incredulous glance. "He just showed up like that? Why didn't you just make your move then?"
There was a change in the tint in Fugaku's eyes. He didn't like what he was hearing from his son's mouth. It sounded far too much like what a good number of the Uchiha continued to say to this very day. "There was a good reason that we didn't attack the Godaime at that time." He said, looking at the stone face of that very person at the north end of the village. "He was backed by your elder brother."
Sasuke's composure cracked at the mention of Uchiha Itachi. He quickly diverted his attention to the window, looking anywhere but to his father. "Itachi?" he repeated. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that he allied himself with Konoha before the Uchiha." Fugaku explained. He gave a curt nod towards the academy, where the Hokage's office could be found. "He was trusted by the Hokage. We believed we could use him to gather information on the Hokage. Little did we know that the Hokage was using him for that very same purpose against us. At the time you can be certain I and the rest of the Uchiha were angry. Itachi and the Godaime proved to be persuasive however. The rest is as you know it."
Silence fell upon father and son as Fugaku allowed Sasuke time to let this information sink in. It took Sasuke the better part of a minute to think about it all, and he didn't slack off in doing so. When he finally settled on his feelings he turned away from the window and headed back towards the centre of the room, hands buried in his pockets and eyes back on the ceiling.
"By the sound of things we could have been in a really bad position if not for Itachi and the Godaime." He said. He turned on the spot to face his father again. "But I'm not sure I understand. What's the point in telling me this?"
Fugaku watched his son for a moment. He felt glad that Sasuke shared his view on the affair. After hearing what Sasuke had to say just before that he was concerned that he was about to make a rift between the two brothers. "Itachi's position with the Godaime has grown even stronger since that time." he said, joining his son away from the window. "I believe there's a chance that Itachi might even become Hokage one day."
When this was said Fugaku was standing directly in front of Sasuke, commanding his son's full attention. Not that he needed to be so close to earn that, but it helped in expressing the gravity of the situation. "Should that happen, Itachi will no longer be fit to handle the affairs of the Uchiha in my stead." He spoke with great care and strength. "Do you understand what I'm saying Sasuke? There is a possibility that the Uchiha clan will be entrusted to you and not your brother."
A couple of sparrows landed on the window sill outside the police chief's office, chirping to one another in their own language. The two bounced around the sill for a few seconds in this exchange, before taking off together and heading towards the market district. Their chirping was the only noise made for a while. Naturally Sasuke was quite at a loss.
The Uchiha were as firm with tradition as any other greater clan. They were certainly comparable with the Hyuga in that regard. That was why Sasuke had grown up always believing that it would be Itachi who took over the Uchiha when their father retired. Sasuke had never in his life been ambitious, so he had never even thought about a future where he could become head of the Uchiha. To hear his father saying such a thing to him now wasn't just shocking, it was downright earth shattering.
His father could see the effects of what he said and knew that Sasuke wasn't going to be able to think clearly for a while yet. There was no rush to hear his thoughts on the matter though, so he allowed things to move on so he could give his son some time. "Think it over for a while. We'll discuss it later." He said, putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and leading him to the door. "Come along, I'll walk you out."
Sasuke moved on reflex as his father wheeled him through the corridor and towards the stairs. It was good that he had made so many visits to this place in the past that he was able to pass through the building on memory alone. He wasn't paying any heed to his surroundings past his father's presence beside him. How could he, when he had just been told he could one day be the leader of an entire clan?
What a giant pain in the ass that would be!
It was only a few minutes before the two of them reached the ground floor and were stepping into the reception hall again, where Yashiro was still busy at the same paperwork he had been doing fifteen minutes ago. Sasuke would have stayed in his daze even as his father bid him farewell, if not for the fact that his father stopped suddenly in his tracks, making Sasuke bump into him a little. That brought Sasuke out by a bit, enough to look at what had brought his father to a halt.
"Inabi." Fugaku called out. "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be off duty."
As it turned out Yashiro wasn't doing the same paperwork at all. He and Uchiha Inabi were both looking over a form from either side of the desk when Fugaku and Sasuke arrived. Inabi looked at Fugaku with a raised brow instead of the sheepish smirk he usually wore when he tried to sneak in extra hours.
"Fugaku." Inabi said. He turned back to the form and signed his name before joining the head of the Uchiha and the Police Department. "You know I can't just sit around and do nothing all day. I got assigned guard duty at the south gate." He nodded down the corridor to Yashiro's left. "I caught someone trying to sneak in without submitting to standard procedure. It was a boy, about Sasuke's age. Fugaku, the kid has ninja training. He gave me a good run around for a couple of minutes."
Fugaku was already fixing his attention on the corridor Inabi had nodded towards. It was a passage separated from the reception hall by a thick sheet of plastic and a door with an electronic lock. As such he could see down the corridor and to the guard standing outside a room. "Why is he in an interrogation room?" he asked. "Our jail cells are designed with barrier jutsu to keep ninja from breaking out."
Inabi let out a weak chuckle at that, rubbing the back of his neck and grinning feebly. "That's the thing. We've got some punks in there that were trying to steal booze." He said with a jerk of the head to the corridor to Yashiro's right. "The second we put the kid in there with them he decks the big guy and starts making plans with the others. I'm pretty sure I heard the word "heist" in there."
A laugh escaped Sasuke's mouth. All of a sudden his attentions were diverted to the hall this "kid" was supposed to be in. Fugaku didn't share his sentiment, but he was certainly apprehensive from what Inabi was telling him. "A couple of minutes?" he repeated, while pushing Sasuke towards the plastic door. "Sounds like you need more time off to recover."
While Inabi groaned Fugaku typed in the code that allowed Sasuke and himself entry to the interrogation rooms. Well, they were called interrogation rooms, but more than once Fugaku had picked up on wry comments from Morino Ibiki and his goons regarding his methods of interrogation. However whenever he heard one of those Torture and Interrogation guys accuse him of being a "soft touch", he knew to take it as a compliment. The T and I department got their jobs done, but often at the cost of traumatising the detainee for life. That was not how the Konoha Military Police Department did things, and it never would be.
Sasuke followed after his father, his eyes coming to the guard standing at the door of the designated interrogation room. The guard was not an Uchiha, and therefore Sasuke did not know him. Fugaku however greeted the man with a courteous nod which was returned. Soon the guard was forgotten however, as he and his father came to the window of the room with the mentioned prisoner. Sasuke looked in with bated breath.
Interrogation rooms were primarily used for that purpose, but there were occasions such as now when they were needed to house more suspicious guests. In this instance the tables and chairs had been removed and the cot that was usually clipped to the wall had been let down, providing a seat and a bed for its current inhabitant. The room was dark, but there was still a good enough degree of visibility for Sasuke to make out just what he was looking at.
A boy indeed, of Sasuke's age most agreeably. But even with the visibility being fairly decent there wasn't much Sasuke could clearly make out about the individual. He wore a thin hooded jacket several sizes too big for him, with said hood shrouding his head and half his face with it. The jacket was unfastened, and underneath he wore nothing, showing off a frame more muscular than Sasuke's teachers would advise. Cloth wraps covered his hands and he wore dark pants with brown sandals on his feet. What Sasuke could see of this boy told him just about as much as it didn't.
Next to him Fugaku was studying the boy in the interrogation room with a sharper perspective. Slowly his gaze became more and more fixed and his brow deepened into a strange frown. His lips moved ever so slightly in time with his thoughts, yet they were unreadable. He waved a hand to the guard, a signal to turn on the lights. The guard obeyed, and a second later Sasuke flinched.
A pair of brilliant blue eyes, piercing through the glass and staring deep into his own. A smile that gave away not a single detail of what was going on in that mind. A boy who could see through a two way mirror as if it weren't there at all. Three things that bothered Sasuke about the stranger sitting before him. It took him a second to realise the gravity of that last detail though.
"He can see me." He breathed.
"Don't be-" Fugaku was about to accuse his son of having a weak gut or a foolish mind, but the truth was that the boy behind the glass just drew too much of his attention. There was something about his face that lured him in, like an optical illusion you couldn't quite figure out. Attempting proved to be a difficult process, and since Sasuke put the notion in his head, he turned his attention to the concern of his son.
It took him no more than a millisecond with his Sharingan to discover something that struck him as odd. The boy's hands were clasped together with unusual firmness for the way the boy sat. If he wasn't holding something in there, he was performing some sort of trick. And yet the way he held his hands together, a simple grasping of one palm across the other, resembled no hand seal, conventional or otherwise, that Fugaku had ever seen before. His Sharingan showed him no gathering of chakra. Either Sasuke really was just being paranoid, or the boy had already done what he wanted to do.
Whatever that was, it allowed the boy to look Sasuke straight in the eyes.
"There's something strange about him." Fugaku murmured to himself. He glanced to the guard. "Anything to report?"
"He was apprehended with a katana strapped to his back." The guard explained. "He was very vocal about us confiscating it. Before he was put in the cell he said he had a meeting with the Hokage, but we checked it out and there's no such record of a-"
The guard was cut off by the unexpected sound of a hand knocking against glass. For a second the three of them looked at the window to the interrogation room, but the boy within hadn't moved an inch. They looked further on then to the only other place that made sense, i.e. the security door to this part of the building. Sure enough there was someone there, waving from the other side and showing off what looked like a wrapped bento box.
Uchiha Mikoto, wife of Uchiha Fugaku and mother of Uchiha Sasuke.
Without any hesitance Fugaku crossed the corridor and opened up the door, greeting his wife with a neat level of affection for their marriage and propriety for his official standing. But Mikoto as always had a habit of foregoing formalities when she was in a good mood, and she was certainly in a good mood now. When Fugaku aimed to give her a kiss on the cheek she intercepted with her lips, causing much embarrassment for Sasuke and the guard.
In an attempt to divert his focus away from his parents Sasuke returned his attention to the boy behind the glass. Doing so led him to notice that the boy was wearing a different expression than he had a moment ago. The smile had tightened at the edges and the eyes had sharpened considerably, no longer looking directly at Sasuke. The boy grasped his still clasped hands together and furrowed his brow a little. Then, for some reason, Sasuke got goose bumps.
The guard reacted suddenly, making Sasuke jump as the guard looked inside the room. Before Sasuke could ask if anything was up the guard was switching his attention to Fugaku, who was already returning to them with a troubled look on his face. The two of them were looking back inside the interrogation room as if they'd just smelled smoke coming from out of there. Sasuke joined them in their search and discovered right away a thing that troubled him quite a bit. The boy. His smile was back, and his eyes were as piercing as ever. However he did not look at Sasuke, Fugaku or the guard. Instead he drew those eyes slowly across the wall of the interrogation room.
"What's going on?"
Fugaku froze where he stood, a look of dawning shock coming over his face. Like the boy behind the glass he slowly turned his eyes across the wall, until he reached what he felt was the point of intersection between their lines of sight. Or rather, until he was looking at exactly what the boy was looking at. That was his own wife, coming to join him in his concerned inspection. The thought of what that meant nearly paralysed Fugaku. The boy could see through walls!
"Who's in…" Mikoto began to ask about the inhabitant of the room, but by then she was close enough to see for herself. In a split second worried curiosity turned into a stupefied stare as her mouth hung open and her eyes locked on to the boy inside. She looked like the breath had been knocked out of her by what she saw. And when she spoke, it was like she was seeing the dead walking. "Kushina?!"
The name drop brought on a double take from Fugaku so sharp he almost broke his own neck. From his wife, to the boy, to his wife again and then back to the boy, until he was searching for the details his wife had picked up instantly without having to utilise her Sharingan. "Kushina?" he repeated warily. "Are you talking about that Kushina?!"
Mikoto didn't bother to confirm or deny her husband's question. Instead she dodged around her husband and son to grab the guard by the arm, since she couldn't bring herself to look away from the boy behind the glass. "He was asked for his name, wasn't he?!" she demanded frantically. "What was it?!"
The guard was about as bewildered as Sasuke was, and also in a bit of pain from the force of Mikoto's grip. "Ah!" he gasped, speaking quickly for the sake of his poor arm. "He said his name was Uzumaki!"
Mikoto and Fugaku paled. "Uzumaki?!" Mikoto repeated. The guard winced.
"Yeah, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Hatake Kakashi rapped his knuckles against the wooden door to the Hokage's office. A second later he was called to enter. He opened the door and stepped into the dimly lit office, closing it behind him with a click. The Hokage was seated at his desk, his chair turned away from Kakashi and facing the window. From here Kakashi could just make out the official hat of the Hokage and a pair of feet on the window sill that suggested the village leader was in the middle of a snooze.
"It's Kakashi." Said Kakashi.
The afternoon sun barely reached in through the windows. It was enough to give everything in the room an auburn hue. The office was already a dark shade of red from its last refurbishment. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it just made the room much more stuffy at times like this. This was why the windows were, as always, opened wide to allow in any and all breezes. Where that failed, the air conditioning unit above the centre window compensated. Right now it was doing its job, blowing cool air into the room.
The Godaime Hokage dropped his feet from the sill at Kakashi's introduction and turned in his seat until he was facing the Jonin. The hat of the Hokage sat at an angle on his head, covering his eyes from the light that had already gone off in a westward direction. He wore a smile that was as calm as his posture, wrinkles at the edges of his mouth indicating a life that brought on such an expression often.
"You're back sooner than I expected, Kakashi." The Godaime said. "All is well in Tea Country I take it?"
"If by well you mean one mob boss lesser then I suppose it is." Kakashi responded. "Shall I give my formal report now, Hokage-sama?"
The Godaime shook his head. "No, I'll just read it later." He said, simply to annoy Kakashi. It was procedure to write up a report after a mission, but the Godaime was lenient with matters of lesser importance to Fire Country and often let his ninja off with just a verbal report. He was politely criticised for it by a certain pair of advisors by the name of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo, but he felt it was more important to reduce the stress in his ninjas life than to fill the file room with documents that weren't particularly necessary. Kakashi was just an exception to this nicety. "There's no one here Kakashi. You don't have to speak so respectfully."
As if words were nails what the Godaime spoke burst Kakashi's form and he visibly deflated into a more relaxed composure. "The last time I was caught calling you anything less than Hokage-sama I received strict words from the previous advisors." He said with a relieved sigh. He stepped forward and pulled out one of the two chairs in front of the Hokage's desk, turning it around and sitting on it with his arms folded on the back rest. "Then how was your day, dad?"
The Godaime lifted his hat from his head, revealing the same dark eyes and same grey hair as Kakashi before him. Hatake Sakumo was a man who knew how to look at people. He was well known for being able to notice the slightest twitches of a person's expression and translate them with such precision that he was at one time or another accused of wielding a Sharingan. Ironic, considering who his son was. Coincidentally it was that very same trait that had a hand in Kakashi spending about eighty percent of his life wearing a mask. Not that it helped him any against his father's eyes.
"I have some good news actually." Sakumo said, watching as Kakashi ran a finger across the desk, checking for dust. Sakumo had a sudden urge to throw a book at the cocky brat. "Just today I received some information as to the location of a certain gang of criminals that have been causing a lot of problems all over Fire Country. You know them as the Chain Breakers."
Kakashi rested his chin on his arms and watched his father passively. There was nothing strange about some gang running through Fire Country. At least not so that it was worth saying "good news" about finding them. But the lack of strangeness only served to make the matter into something strange. "I suppose… good work to whoever managed to locate them?" he guessed. "Hold on, didn't we bust the Chain Breakers a month ago?"
Sakumo shook his head and waved his hand. "No, you're thinking of the Jail Breakers." He corrected, before taking a second to consider what he just said. "Though now that I think about it, the mere thought that unimaginative groups like that are able to survive long enough to make a name for themselves is fairly disheartening. And boring to think about too." He glanced off for a second, then back to Kakashi. "I wonder if we should make some dummy gangs with better names? It would help us gather up some thugs looking for a group to join and tell us exactly where they're coming from."
"Sounds like a plan." Kakashi replied in a half interested tone. He didn't like the way this conversation was settling. Stepping out of an awkward silence wasn't something he enjoyed doing. But there wasn't all that much to talk about by way of gangs and such. "So what's so special about these "Chain Breakers"?"
There was a glint in Sakumo's eye as he opened his mouth to answer, but at the last second he hesitated and changed both his mind and his posture. "It might be nothing, might be something." He said mysteriously, sitting back in his chair and resting his jaw on his hand. "In other news, you've seen the roster for the graduating class from the academy, haven't you? Any students you think you'd be interested in leading?"
If Kakashi's chin wasn't already settled into his arms his head would have dropped down to his chest at that very instant. All of a sudden he missed the awkward silence from a moment ago; anything that didn't involve discussing his so far shaky future as a sensei to a Genin team was just dandy by him. Alas from the very moment his father hesitated it had already been too late to divert the topic.
"I haven't had a chance to look at the roster yet." He admitted, speaking in a half truth. He'd been purposefully busying himself with anything that kept him away from academy business. "Though from what I hear Gai is very enthusiastic about two or three students. I'm not sure whether to offer Gai luck as a sensei or his students luck for having Gai as their sensei."
Sakumo laughed into his hand. Of course he'd heard of the infamous Maito Gai training regime, and how many a young ninja didn't make it through his examinations simply because it asked too much of their bodies. It was a stark contrast to Kakashi, who turned away any would be Genin that couldn't cooperate with their team mates. Then again Sakumo often wondered if that was the real reason his son had yet to settle on a team.
"You don't have your eye on anyone then." He said, clapping his hands together and sitting forward with a somewhat busy look about him. "That makes this easier. For this year you're being taken off the list of prospective Jonin sensei."
Kakashi cocked a brow at his father's rather brazen announcement. While he had no objections to being taken off the list itself, the question of why most definitely came to his mind. "You have a mission for me?" he asked, straightening up. Well, lifting his chin from his arms anyway. "I thought the arrangement for me leaving the ANBU squad was that I became a team captain instead?"
"You're twisting my words Kakashi. What I said was that you were too skilled to be kept out of a department. It was you who chose to take the role of team captain, despite the fact that you've yet to actually take on a team." Sakumo spoke with greater severity than he usually gave out. This was another mannerism he reserved especially for his son. "But that aside for now, no, I don't have a mission for you."
Now Kakashi was changing from curious to concerned. If there was no mission and he was being taken off the list, then the only other conclusion he could reach was that he was about to be forcibly switched into another department. "I understand that you think I should just pick up a team and do my job, but it isn't that easy." He said, starting to get defensive. "I didn't think I'd be getting relocated without at least prior consultation."
There was a flurry of expressions brought on by Sakumo as a result of this. A furrowing of the brow, a pursing of the lips, a narrowing of the eyes and finally a widening when he realised what his son's train of thought was. "Oh, it's nothing like that!" he said with a quick wave to disregard Kakashi's misconception. "No, the reason you're off the list this year is because you might be needed next year. I don't want to risk you actually liking a team from this group. And in any case, it might not even be necessary, depending on what the teams I sent out bring back to me."
By now Kakashi was very confused. "Teams?" he frowned. "Are you talking about the Chain Breakers again?"
There it was again, the glint in Sakumo's eye. Only this time it was accompanied by a guilty face. Sakumo rubbed the back of his head and turned his chair away, averting his gaze from Kakashi and looking at the floor. "Kakashi, I have a confession to make." He said solemnly, speaking at a slow pace. "It's… in regards to Minato's legacy."
Kakashi watched his father with a growing feeling of anxiety. It had been a very long time since he had heard the name of his long dead sensei, and even to this day it was a tense subject with him. All he knew was that if his father had something to confess in that regard, it would be a pretty good idea to brace himself for the worst. "What is it?" he asked, noticing how dry his throat suddenly was.
"…Around eleven years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, a boy was born. I'm sure you knew about it. It was Minato's child after all. But what you don't know is that there was a reason the Kyuubi attack and the birth of that boy coincided. That reason was because Minato's wife, Kushina, was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki."
Kakashi took a sharp breath in. He'd known Uzumaki Kushina. He hadn't known about that however.
"Going into labour weakened the seal that contained the Kyuubi and let it loose. Minato made a decision and sealed the Kyuubi in a new host. He sealed it inside his newborn son." Sakumo especially couldn't look at Kakashi at this moment. "A son that I lost shortly after being given the title of Godaime Hokage."
In an instant Kakashi was on his feet, looking down at his father with a wave of mixed emotions. Shock, anger, horror and many more were painted across his eyes in place of the words that took longer to come than they should have. "I asked you so many times about Minato-sensei's child!" he yelled. "You told me he was being raised out of the public eye for his own safety!"
"And that was how it should have been!" Sakumo exclaimed. Kakashi stopped his yelling, but stayed on his feet, waiting for his father to explain himself. Sakumo took a second and rubbed his eyes before he continued. "I put the boy in the hands of someone I was sure could be trusted. That man was supposed to take the boy and raise him outside of the village. The villagers would forget about the boy and he would have returned to Konoha later to live anonymously!"
"Then what happened?!"
Sakumo turned to look his son in the eyes. Then he turned back in his chair to face Kakashi completely. This wasn't the time to avert himself. "The ninja I entrusted the boy to sent periodic reports to me about the boy's development." He explained. "And after a year I sent someone out to check up on the boy to get a proper analysis of his upbringing. It was then that I found out that the ninja had written a large stack of reports ahead of time and paid a courier to deliver them once a month. By the time we found this out, neither he nor the boy were anywhere to be found."
Several seconds passed in silence as Kakashi hovered over his father, the anger draining away to be replaced with more depressive feelings. He dropped back into the chair and buried his face in his hand, while Sakumo carried on in a quieter voice.
"The only people who knew were myself, the ninja sent to check up on the boy and the Sandaime." He said softly. "Sarutobi-sama advised me to keep the whole thing quiet until we picked up the traitor's trail. We were sure that the boy had been taken to another village to be sold or something as such. If I hadn't been careful about how I searched, we could very well have started another war. But as a result the search was slow. It took us nine years before we heard a report about a man fitting the description of the traitor, accompanied by a child. The reason it took so long was because the traitor had integrated himself into a group of felons that kept well to themselves."
Another silence came as Sakumo looked meaningfully at his son. Kakashi didn't need any further cue. The slow dropping of his jaw was indication enough that he understood what he was being told. "The Chain Breakers!" he breathed.
Sakumo nodded with a wistful smile. "I sent three teams to track down the gang." He said. "It's my hope that within a month they'll return with the boy in hand." He then gave his son a more serious look. "This is why I want you to wait until next year before you pick up a team. I'm certain that the boy has been trained in the ninja arts. That man isn't the sort that would just let the boy's power stagnate like that. If everything goes as I hope it does, I want to put him in your charge."
Kakashi thought for a short instant. He then bobbed his head in a nod. "Yeah, I've got no problem with that." He said quietly.
The two Hatakes went for several minutes without saying anything then, both far too deep in thought about what the near future might bring to even continue their discussion. After a while Sakumo decided to try and diffuse the situation. If there was one thing he held great disdain for, it was working on a heavy heart.
"There's no doubt the boy is going to be a challenge." He said with a smile. He picked up his pen and chewed the tip while staring off into space. "Being brought up in a group like that is bound to have some effect. You might have your work cut out for you this time." He looked at his son with a thin grin. "Well, I suppose we'll have to wait to see the damage-"
A sharp knocking at the door disrupted Sakumo's words. The interruption was quick and heated, immediately putting him and Kakashi on alert. Sakumo called out to the person on the other side to come in, and come in the person did. It was one of the secretaries that entered the room, looking rather out of breath. That was rarely a good sign.
"Hokage-sama, I just received a call from the Konoha Military Police Force!" she gasped, wiping her sweating brow. "They wanted me to inform you that they have one Uzumaki Naruto in custody!"
Sakumo and Kakashi stared at the secretary as if she were on fire. Aside from the sounds of her panting for breath and the whirring of the air conditioner, there was nothing to hear or say. It wasn't until Sakumo's pen fell out of his hand, clattering on the floor, that the silence was broken enough for him to speak.
"Could you repeat that?"