Chapter 1: Infiltration

Disclaimer: Yeah... don't own characters and all that.

In that moment the Uchiha wept tears of crimson, his eyes dark and strange like dying coals. The black, unrelenting fire before him, Amaterasu, shifted and stirred deeming all that could be burned, to burn until it became ash. The fire's heat was crawling slowly, enveloping the place, the village it consumed. It crackled and moaned, nearly overcoming the pale screams of the people it charred.

It was a terrible sight, although Uchiha Sasuke was coolly unaffected it seemed on the outside, by this horror. It had simply been his mission, his duty, to make certain that that place was destroyed; burned until its very essence dissolved into smoke.

Thin wind ran over the land, soon to be covered by cold night. The ninja of Konohagakue no Sato lingered unseen and unheard even though the quiet of the evening. There were no sounds but the crackling of the black fire.

There it was done. Sasuke must be going. He had a wife and child at home, awaiting his arrival in one piece.


The sound of his soft tapping feet on the wooden floor entered the room, and the kunoichi stirred in her chair, though not waking completely. There was an opened scroll in her lap as she lay there waking slowly. The room was quiet and the moon outside glimmered through the windows. She gave him a soft smile, and he gently brushed her pink hair from her forehead and kissed it.

Sakura just smiled at his simple affection, as her husband left to retrieve his dinner waiting in the kitchen for him. Her little boy stirred slightly in the arm chair next to her. Uchiha Naozumi had fallen asleep waiting for his father to come home. He opened his dark green eyes that slightly resembled his mother's. The ten year old brushed raven hair from his face. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, the boy stretched across the chair, yawing.

Suddenly he perked up, hearing the thin, muffled sound of clanging dishes in the kitchen. He glanced at his mother's chair. She was reading still. In wonderful realization, Naozumi sprung from his chair.

"Oto-san!" he shouted, sheer joy in his voice. He ran, bare feet tapping, straight to the kitchen. "Oto-san! Oto-san! You're back!"

Sasuke smiled softly, the kind of smile that barely shows. His son stumbled toward him, tripping over his own haste. Naozumi tackled his father's waist, hugging him with all he had as Sasuke just stood there leaning on the edge of the counter. Green eyes gazed up at Sasuke, and instantly he saw the pain flicker over his son's face as he spotted the blood stains around Sasuke's eyes. Naozumi stepped back, further examining his father. Minor cuts and wounds here and there; a fair katana gash at the shoulder. Yet, Naozumi seemed near anger at his father. The boy's thin, dark brows furrowed. Sasuke calmly finished the bread he was eating as he looked down at his son.

"I'll get mother…" Naozumi offered, intending for her to heal his father. Sasuke merely raised a brow, as the little Uchiha turned.

"Heh. Don't worry, Nao. I'm fine."

"Oh really?" His son countered nearly raging. "You used Amaterasu!" Naozumi pointed an accusing finger at his father.

Sasuke, in return, absentmindedly touched his face near his right eye. He stared at his fingertips as he brought them down from his face. They came away with crimson blood. "Hn."

"You could have killed that entire village with just Chidori!" Naozumi's voice was nearly frantic, reaching a whining pitch. As an Uchiha also gifted with Sharingan, he knew the dangers of using Amaterasu. The boy's concern for his father was only natural to his behavior, that of which he had gained from his mother. "Why… why did you use Ama-"

"Stop, Naozumi." Sasuke interrupted his son, a stern command in his voice. Naozumi seemed near tears.

"The last time you used that-" Naozumi never finished, as his mother walked into the kitchen her brows furrowed.

"Sasuke-kun. What on earth is all the yelling for?" she inquired, hands on her hips.

"Nao was worried. That's all." He answered calmly. That night the discussion of Amaterasu was shrugged off, but not forgotten by little Naozumi. The boy wanted nothing more than to be a ninja, just like his father. He wanted for his father to teach him jutsu, to help him get ahead at the academy. Most of all Naozumi wanted his father to stop using Amaterasu. The technique had adverse affects on him. Sasuke wouldn't be able to fight with powerful effective jutsu for two days at the least. Especially if he had used it more than once, and judging by the amount of blood stains near his father's eyes, Naozumi knew he had used it many more times than once. Naozumi didn't fear this on normal weeks though, but this was different. There had been attacks on the Uchiha compound for days now each night. Something was coming this time, and it wasn't good.


The night was blank, quiet. Konohagakue no Sato was sleeping, and no one noticed the silhouettes that crossed the village silently, moving toward the Uchiha compound.

Guards lay dead already. They had gained entrance to the compound, twenty of them.

Sasuke tensed in his bed. Scattered chakra signatures were close, very close. Gently he slipped from under the sheets, not even rustling them slightly. He pulled a shirt on, adorned with the Uchiha fan on its back. He carelessly grabbed kunai from the drawers, and stuffed them into his pockets. A katana he grabbed from its place hung on the wall. Sasuke turned swiftly to his wife.

"Sakura!" he whispered urgently. "Sakura!"

She stirred, stretching. "Sasuke-kun…" she muttered. "What ar-" Sakura's eyes widened shockingly as her voice was cut off by her husband's hand clamped over her mouth. She stared him straight in the face, their noses touching as he came closer to her. Sasuke shook his head at her, signaling for her to cease speaking.

Sasuke stepped back from the bed, looking around subtly, his dark eyes moving side to side. His hair was messy, windblown looking. He still appeared dazed from sleep through his calm exterior.

Sakura tensed suddenly, sensing the danger that her husband had sensed in sleep. She flew out of the bed, heading straight for the closet. She shut the door soundlessly behind her, and Sasuke waited. Within a record of thirty seconds the kunoichi stepped out fully dressed in ninja attire. Sakura slipped on the final touch of her gear, her gloves, flexing her hand in them.

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