FUGAKKKUUU-CHAN!
Oh. My. God. How had I forgotten about her? …could I jump out my window before she got here? I eyed the glass, opened slightly to allow a breeze. Hmmm…
Then the door is thrown open, so hard it hits the wall of the hallway. And in steps…
My terrifying, disturbed, awe-inspiring sister. Uchiha Kanade. She's…sort of a combination of Obito and Itachi (the other Itachi) and Mitarashi Anko and sometimes Orochimaru and occasionally Jiraiya. Luckily she goes on long term missions a lot.
Her clothes are as skin bearing as ever. They are intensely impractical; her shirt, a lurid green, is acceptable in terms of public decency, but her midriff is utterly bare, and her short trousers seem to be made of spandex or another thin, easily pierced material.
Kanade bounds over to me. Long, unbound dark hair skews out in all directions. I brace myself for what will happen next…
As she squeezes me into a tight hug. Not quite tight enough to impair my breathing, but almost.
"Eh, eh, no hello for your beloved nee-chan?" she asks cheerily. "I'm back in this burg for another two weeks!" The irritating woman even has the nerve to ruffle my hair.
"Hello," I say. "Is that good?" It isn't that she dislikes Konoha per se…it's more that she finds it intolerably boring most of the time.
Kanade grins. "Well, in the sense that I get to spend time with my adorable little brother, yes!"
I twitch. Hopefully she doesn't know about Itachi. She would corrupt him just like the old veterans would, but in a different way. Inwardly I shudder at how terrible he would grow up to be if he spent a lot of time with her…a greater hellion than Shisui could ever dream of being, for sure. Well, at least Shisui before-
"You heard about Iwa and that?" she asks, her loud voice jarring as ever.
"A little. There's been some…incidents that, ihh, may be related to that territorial dispute…" Seeing as the Konoha Military Police is sort of a government agency, I feel I should use the official term, in case we're being watched.
"Don't give me that damn euphemism, Fugaku. I know what it is, and you know what it is. It's a war. And I'll bet my hairbrush that Konoha will be involved within the year."
For Kanade, that means she's nearly positive it'll happen. She's very possessive of her hairbrushes.
"Be that as it may," I say, sighing a tiny bit, "We aren't involved yet. Therefore it is of mostly no concern to Konoha, although I believe missives have been sent to all shinobi doing long term work in that area to be especially careful." I absently shuffle a few papers, hoping she'll think I have Important Work and go away soon. I love her, I really do, but she is very loud.
"Stop giving me all the official blather!" My sister manages to raise her voice a few decibels. The walls in this building are thick, but they are not that thick. "I saw Iwa ninja waltzing into Kusa like they owned it! Dozens of them! Some of them within twenty kilometres of Kusa's border with the Land of Fire! A border which is only three days from here!"
I blink, fairly shocked. I was aware that the daimyo had sent some of his soldiers, trained in only taijutsu and weaponry, to deal with the issue, and that there had been some fairly serious fighting, but I thought it was far from us.
Suddenly, the door bursts open again. There is Obito, his goggles askew and his face slightly ruddy, like he was running as fast as he could to get here. Strange. "Fuga-ku-san!" He sounds like he was running, too, with those long pauses between the syllables. "Kono-hagakure no Sa-to has-has-declared war on-on-Iwa!" With that he collapses onto the floor. A piece of paper falls from his unclenched hand to the floor, and from here I can see it has the Hokage's official letterhead on it. Oh my.
My sister picks it up, glances at it, and slams it on my desk.
"Well, well, what do you know it? I was right!…as usual, of course." I roll my eyes before reading the letter. It reads:
UCHIHA FUGAKU
You have been designated to inform the Konoha Military Police and the Uchiha Clan that Konohagakure no Sato has declared war on Iwagakure no Sato. Additional patrols need to be scheduled so as to better keep watch for spies within our borders. Please also note that a draft has been instated, and all able ninja currently on any form of non-combat duty aside from hospital medic-nin may be called to fight. Notices for physical examinations to determine who is able will be sent out within the week.
All trips out of Konoha for purposes other than fighting will need to be approved by the Hokage's Office. Civilians will not be allowed to make any trips that go within forty kilometres of the border with Kusa no Kuni, and are advised not to travel alone.
Sarutobi Hiruzen
Sandaime Hokage no Konoha
I drop the paper on my desk. It is still warm from the printer, and the ink from the Hokage's signature is still wet. Which probably explains why Obito is so exhausted.
Even though I knew this was coming, it's still horrifying. I look down at the boy slumped on the ground. He can't be more than ten. And unless I do something, he won't live to see fifteen. And Itachi…
I remember, after it was all over, after he had seen his aunts and uncles and cousins come back missing a limb or an eye or a life, after he had seen houses explode from remotely-detonated Iwa bombs, after all the funerals and wariness and loss, those bright black eyes that looked into mine this morning were far less bright.
I can't let that happen to him again. I can't. I won't. There is a time when one has to be exposed to the horrors of the world…and whatever that age may be, it certainly isn't two.