Naruto yawned as he entered the gate. It was fortunate that he was still cleared for travel or his work with Jiraiya's spy network which would one day be his spy network would be a great deal harder to get done. He didn't care for all of the drinking this particular job required, but a great deal of good information was found in bars and other such establishments, and they were a good place to meet contacts without arousing suspicion. Fortunately, thanks to the Kyuubi, he had a much higher alcohol tolerance than normal.
Along with handing over yesterday's sealing work, he would have to give the Intelligence department a heads-up. For what though, he did not yet know, other than the fact that it somehow involved the Uchiha.
As he made his way to his apartment, he was ambushed by a furious Satoshi. It seemed that his friend had gotten his note then. He was too tired to deal with this now, but it seemed that he would have to...
"What the hell Satoshi?!" he yelled as he pushed his enraged teammate off of him.
"You had no right! No right at all, you stinking hypocrite!" Satoshi yelled back as he tried to wail on him again.
"Hypocrite?" he asked.
"What? You don't think I can't smell the booze and perfume on you?" Satoshi replied. "Apparently, you can have a good time whenever the hell you want to, but when someone else tries..."
"There's a difference between letting loose once in a while, and doing what you've been doing Satoshi." he replied with a sigh. This was going to be a long morning, and he still needed to write up his report...
The man who currently called himself Tobi when he wasn't passing himself off as his relative Uchiha Madara to the point that he actually thought of himself as Madara and completely forgot who he was if he was anyone at all at times smiled behind his mask as he gave a stick of dango to a hungry looking child who had the slightly feral look of an untended orphan about him. Despite the fact that he was what most people considered evil, he had a bit of a soft spot when it came to children. It probably came from the fact that he'd raised a few of his own little monsters in between missions for Madara back when the original was still around to forward his own plans. Some stuff could be left on its own back then.
He wasn't the only Tobi, nor was he the first. Madara had needed and would need several people in several critical places in order to properly bring his plans to fruition. The old falconer's habit of naming his Uchiha assistants after common Black Kites raised eyebrows amongst those who knew the nickname some militaries had given them, but the name made sense in a way. Like many Uchiha, Shithawks would steal everything on your plate if you didn't watch the damn things. Zetsu likely existed to be his and his cousin's watcher, and to wave them off if it looked like they were about to snatch something from Madara's currently unattended plate.
He wouldn't steal off of Madara's plate however. He had too much riding on the Moon's Eye Plan, more than the other and younger of the two remaining Tobi who likely would have gotten over his little girlfriend long ago if he weren't batshit insane and possibly brain-damaged. It wasn't really in his nature anyway, considering all he'd wanted and what he'd been denied by his own clan whom he'd helped slaughter with his much younger cousins who'd been mostly unaware of his work was a peaceful life. He was more of a behind-the-scenes Tobi, and would soon be a retired Tobi since his younger cousin who'd once been a boy named Obito would be the one who'd be joining Madara on the battlefield since he had the skills and raw power to do so, the skills and sheer power he lacked for the most part.
Despite the fact that he wasn't the only one, being Tobi was fun. While he was Tobi, especially since the younger one had come on the scene, he could be happy-go-lucky, and he didn't have to remember...
No, he wouldn't, that way lay even more madness.
Currently, Tobi was in a small town in Fire Country between Konoha and the Rice Country border, a town that he felt would hold something of interest in a few hours. He'd never promised Itachi that he'd stay out of Fire Country entirely after all, just that he would stay out of Konoha, though Itachi was unlikely to realize the reason he'd been given such a promise twice had been because he and his younger cousin had switched out when the younger one had gone off to stamp out some fire that had sprung up in Kiri while he'd been away training the young boy.
Since they had been careful not to switch out around the boy too often, Itachi had thought him to be the other Tobi with his disguise removed, because young Obito had kept a seal-based illusion that had put out a false Chakra signature up while with the boy who had known him as a toddler, and he was closer to the age Madara would have been. Being as old as he was, he had looked positively ancient to such young eyes.
Considering that he was a man of his word, he would remain outside Konoha's borders for as long as Itachi was alive. As soon as Itachi was dead however, all bets were off. Itachi was no Madara, and Madara had been the only one to earn his undying loyalty.
As he stood there woolgathering, the child he'd given the dango to ran off before he could change his mind about the gift, and started scarfing it down on the fly. That was maybe two minutes killed until it was time, and he had several hours to go. Perhaps he could visit the local onsen. A nice soak would be good for relieving stress and that twinge in his back, since he hadn't had half his body replaced like his younger cousin had, there'd be little to no comment if he did so. He wouldn't really need to be in top form for what he knew to be coming, but it would be best not to risk getting caught with his pants down. Having his back go out at the most inopportune moment would put quite the crimp in his plans.
Getting old sucked, and if the other alternative hadn't been death, he wouldn't have recommended it.
The man smiled as he carried the sleeping bundle over the wall. It had been all too easy. In the three years of peace since the invasion, Konoha had softened back up again and began to get lax in their security measures once more. Patrol routes had become predictable again, and the shinobi who stood guard on them less alert.
Despite the fact that he wasn't exactly one of the elite, he had managed to kill the ANBU guard around his target's house without raising an alarm. He had then made his way into the home of a young Kunoichi who was currently on maternity leave for an indefinite period of time, a kunoichi who was both mother and guard to his target. He killed the young woman and made his way to the apartment's second bedroom in which his target was kept.
The apartment's second bedroom had been made up into a nursery with pale blue walls and ridiculous looking stuffed animals. Oddly enough, one of the animals was a weasel in a ninja costume. A rather strange choice of decoration and childhood plaything considering what the infant's uncle had done. Perhaps, the young woman didn't care for the child nearly as much as she pretended to...
It didn't matter now, the mother was dead, and the child would never see this place again.
As he raced home, he kept his attention focused behind him, ever alert for signs of pursuit. It is perhaps because he was so focused on what might be behind that he didn't realize what might be before could be a problem until he ran into someone halfway between Konoha and home.
"I'm sorry ninja-san, but I can't allow you to go any further." the man in the orange mask, black sweatshirt with armor plates, black pants, white gaiters, black sandals, gray gloves, and long green scarf said.
The man's words sounded playful, but there seemed to be something underneath. Something that gave him the chills.
He learned exactly what that something was when he found himself trapped in a nightmarish genjutsu world for the last few seconds before he died. For him, it seemed like days, but...
The elder and soon to be retired since his part in things was almost finished Tobi did his best to comfort the infant as he wiped the Oto Jounin's blood off of him. He knew exactly who the infant was, and who he belonged to. The original Uchiha Fugaku had been quite the bastard, which was pretty much par for the course in the clan, though there were a few standouts like himself and his young cousins. The man's son didn't seem quite as arrogant as his father had been if the stories he'd heard about the boy were true though.
If the stories he'd heard about Uchiha Sasuke were true, the boy had become infected with that damnable Senju's "Will of Fire", which immediately made him an unfit parent in his book. There was no way in hell he'd let the first generation of what was to be the new Uchiha Clan be infected with the Senju's philosophies. Besides, the Uchiha owed him a child and so much more...
...The first sign of trouble had been the silence, then the scent of smoke on the air. He knew what burning human flesh smelled like, he had smelled it in almost every battle in which he'd ever been involved before he'd retired to make his home and be with his family whom he'd faked his death for. That smell should not be lingering near the place he called home however...
There had been a reason that he had gone along with the slightly squeamish Obito who hadn't quite been ready to destroy Konoha though he'd said otherwise and accepted Itachi's deal, and got revenge on the Uchiha in exchange for Konoha's temporary survival. He had as much reason, in fact more reason than Madara to get revenge on his clan. The Uchiha's policies regarding "bastards" had taken everything from him.
He had paid them back in blood. Blood for blood. Ten for every one taken from him. Ten for his wife, ten for each of his two sons, ten for his daughter, ten for the wife of his eldest, ten for each of his three small grandchildren.
In truth, though he'd mostly done his work quietly and in the background, he had been responsible for the slaughter of the bulk of the Uchiha clan. Those Obito hadn't killed, the boy assumed Itachi had done since he wasn't even supposed to be in the area that night, and those Itachi hadn't killed he assumed Obito had done.
Though almost completely extinct, the Uchiha still owed him a great deal, more than his three surviving kinsmen could repay. The child he'd just rescued from the Oto nin would cover a small part of that repayment.
"Come on little one, let's find us a new home, and a better name for you than Fugaku." the elder Tobi said as he swaddled the infant whose cries had finally quieted in his scarf. The scarf would have to do until he found the child a suitable blanket.
He would be gone a great deal of the time on business as there was still work to be done until it was time for Obito and Madara to bring the Jyuubi together, and his new child would likely spend most of his time with a minder, but he would find a way to come back to whatever home he chose often enough to bring his new heir up right. This time, there were no Uchiha left to bring down his sons and daughter, no Uchiha to trap his wife, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren inside their family home before burning it down and leaving a warning for the clansman dumb enough to spawn offspring outside of the clan and village. Obito would soon be going to war whether or not the plan they had dedicated decades to succeded, Itachi was dying of illness, and the boy who was now more Senju than Uchiha would stay his hand out of love for his offspring if he ever did learn the child was alive and discover his whereabouts.
This time, his child would live to grow up and start a new Uchiha clan, a better Uchiha clan under the watchful eye of the moon where his older siblings and his niece and nephews would be waiting along with every other loved one who'd passed on.
Sasuke turned pale as he heard the news.
No. No. No. Nonononono. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.
Who would do this? Why would they do this? Could it have been Itachi? If it was, why now? Why just one of them when he could get all of them? Was he just going to take them one at a time to watch him suffer as he was helpless to stop him as he had been back then?
Naruto had warned him earlier that Orochimaru had planned on doing something to him because he'd rejected him three years ago. Had it been Orochimaru who'd taken his son because he hadn't joined him? Was this Orochimaru's revenge?
Had it been someone else? The Sharingan was rare and valuable and with most of the clan being infants, they were at their most vulnerable.
In the end, it didn't matter who did it. His Fugaku was gone. Taken.
All he could hope was that his child was alive somewhere since there was no blood and no note telling him where he could find the body.
Author's Note: Here's where my rewrite decided to take me, which was not much different than my original. As for there being two Tobis, it appeared like it could be that way in the Manga seeing as a man in his teens/twenties would have a hard time passing himself off as that much older all the time and couldn't be everywhere, and since you never saw the full face when the mask was broken/removed until the big reveal...
Edited 4-22-13
