Chapter 10: The Tower
There were some days that she just hated work. She liked math, she did, but sometimes the people working with her just made math hell. Getting someone to pass her a stapler was like moving a mountain most days. She could ask politely and be ignored, ask slightly less politely and be sneered at, or ask rudely and be grudgingly given the device with an indignant snarl. She always felt like such an ass even when she wasn't doing anything wrong. Most days, she simply resorted to using paperclips she bought with her own money because getting them from the people in charge of supplies was a hassle worse than dealing with the tax collectors directly.
She shuddered; she dreaded dealing with those people. Having one her clients audited was a fate worse than death. At least those people discriminated evenly: everyone was under suspicion equally. Someday, somehow, she would use the vileness of the taxmen to her advantage. It would be a glorious day indeed.
At least one project was hers alone. Nobody checked over Tsunade's papers; apparently, she was above any sort of taxation for now. Maybe the Daimyo had given up on her out of sheer aggravation.
Jiraiya had sent her more of the information he had collected via toad that morning. It had been a little shocking the first time, but the toad had graciously explained things before departing in a puff of smoke. She had the information for three more loans in front of her now.
The amount of money that Tsunade owed from these alone was staggering. Crunching these figures into something manageable would be difficult, but she knew she could do it… Maybe. She was glad she had years to complete this. It couldn't come before her usual work. Ii-san would boot her if she fell behind with her regular clients.
A glance at the clock informed her that daily torment was over, and she fled. She only waited until she was off the main roads before breaking into a run for home.
Unlocking the door, she saw that the apartment was empty, just as she had hoped. Naruto was working with Uchiha-san to get the hang of using chakra to boost his speed after being caught three times while pulling pranks last week. Life had become much more unstable now that Naruto was playing the village idiot. His drastic increase in pranks resulted in a lot of ruffled feathers that came to her for recompense.
The Hokage had even summoned her to explain when papier-mâché projectiles had attacked a public building. He had not been happy, but appeals to his sense of sympathy for Naruto's plight had forced him to agree that this was probably the best plan for now. He had even agreed to turn a blind eye when his ninja asked for punishment most of the time so long as Naruto kept things harmless. He could not ensure that the Academy teachers would do the same though. Iruka was sympathetic enough, but the others… When she had passed this on to Naruto, he had only grinned. Sometimes she wondered if he really understood just what it was he was doing.
Cleaning and baking were mundane but necessary evils with people coming over for a surprise party for Naruto. The boys would mess things up again, but presenting a tidy front to the sole adult guest coming was a must. Sasuke said that his mother ran a tight ship. Looking anything less than neat would be stupid.
Grimacing wryly, Nariko wondered why the hell she wanted to do this to herself. Naruto's birthday had been last week and they had had their usual tiny celebration with the newly minted ANBU captain Jaguar and her squad hanging around to keep things quiet. Why on earth did Naruto need to have a party with his partners in crime with Uchiha-san in attendance? She supposed it was because Uchiha-san looked out for Naruto in her own way, and her attendance would make Naruto happy. She laughed quietly at herself. Shiro was right. Little reed indeed…
She froze when she heard someone fumbling with the lock. For a wild moment, she figured that some agitator was about to slit her throat until she firmly brought herself back to earth. No professional ninja would have been so loud. She counted off the seconds it took the boy to beat the lock and wasn't surprised when Sasuke strode in. Naruto had taken to leaving his key at home. More often than not, Sasuke was the one that ended up breaking them in after school. Naruto didn't quite have the fine motor control required to manipulate the tumblers in the lock. It aggravated him to no end.
Uchiha-san followed her son in with raised eyebrows. Sasuke ducked his head under his mother's stare as she slipped off her shoes and bowed formally to Nariko, who quickly bowed back, murmuring the appropriate welcoming phrases to the woman that had finally been trusted with the apartment's location. Nariko didn't doubt that Mikoto-san had known before, but giving the address openly was a sign of trust. Uchiha-san seemed to understand this because she was careful with the information. According to Sasuke, she hadn't told his father. Nariko was rather grateful.
"I left Naruto practicing in the clearing we use for training with Shikamaru and Chouji. They promised to keep him there for another hour," Uchiha-san said.
Nariko sighed with relief. "Thanks! I'll admit that the moment you came in the door, I half-expected Naruto to come barrelling in behind you. Oh, don't mind Sasuke; he's so used to coming here with Naruto and everyone else that he doesn't think anything of it anymore."
"He's not even this comfortable at home."
Nariko would have loved to explain why in detail with a lot of insults directed at Fugaku-san, but she had no wish to offend her guest. Mikoto-san was a good sort of person, if perhaps a little blind to her husband's failings and her older son's growing discontent with the clan. While Sasuke's relationship with his father had improved, it was only because Itachi's credibility with the clan had been steadily falling. It worried Nariko vaguely, but she had let the matter drop since passing her suspicions off to the Hokage. He had indicated that he was dealing with things.
Sasuke had nervously told them all only days ago that Itachi had got into a confrontation with several Uchiha members of the military police before his father had stepped in. Itachi had expressed definite discontent with the abilities of the clan. Sasuke had written down all that he could remember, including a description of the strange shape of Itachi's Sharingan when he had glared at their father's back. Naruto and Kiba had ridiculed his drawing, claiming that it looked like some sort of bug. Nariko, half-asleep, hadn't really thought much of it. Sasuke had petulantly reminded her that she was the one that had told him to record this stuff. She had appeased him by praising his memory and suggesting that he take it to the Hokage.
Why the heck an eye would change shape like Sasuke claimed made no sense to her. Weird bloodline traits just confused her.
Sasuke had looked nervous at the prospect of facing the Hokage, but the entire group had done just that. According to Naruto, the Sandaime had only told them that he would look into things.
Though she hadn't seen Itachi in a long while, Sasuke's tales had been enough to tell her that things with Itachi were indeed rocky. Itachi's best friend Shisui was dead and the Uchiha clan seemed to be suspicious of Itachi's involvement in what had originally been thought a suicide.
"Well, Uchiha-san, would you like some tea?" she asked instead of spilling all her worries on the poor woman. Mikoto-san probably had a much better idea of what was going on and enough worries of her own. Besides, Nariko had learned the hard way that trusting people here wasn't always possible. The secrets here were more than thirty layers deep on the ground and asking questions seemed to be taboo. Some questions were still safe though.
"Yes, please. Supervising tree-walking Tag is thirsty work." Thank the gods for common courtesy. Even ninja knew how to work within that framework.
Kiba barged in while the water was boiling and Akamaru's dirty claws tapping against the freshly cleaned wood floor. Nariko stifled a grimace. Dogs always left a mess. Naruto usually got stuck with cleaning it up since Kiba was Naruto's friend, but today Nariko had the feeling that she was going to get stuck with the job. Naruto was sure to use his birthday against her in their "bargaining" sessions.
"Hey, are we having cake?" Kiba said.
She twitched one shoulder in a shrug.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he said as Akamaru sniffed at her pants as though she had been to the moon.
"Honestly." She pushed the puppy down when he jumped up on her legs. "Calm down. Cake or no, you're getting fed. I just got home a little while ago. Give me a bit of a break."
Kiba snorted at her and crossed his arms. "Hana-nee is way faster than you."
"She's a shinobi. I'm not. Give me a break." Why was she always being held up against ninja relatives? Even Chouji informed her from time to time how superior his ninja father was. It had been easy enough to brush off at first, but it was getting more and more annoying. If Naruto started comparing her to Iruka, she was going to break something. Why the hell did it matter that she didn't work as a murderer for hire?
"She's younger than you." Kiba had a point, not that Nariko would admit to it.
"She doesn't fry her brain working at an accounting agency. She gets to work with animals. I ask you one last time: give me a break."
Kiba snorted again and shrugged mockingly. Uchiha-san watched the exchange with raised eyebrows. Nariko had to admit that Kiba's lack of respect and high standards got on her nerves a lot, but Naruto liked fighting with the feral looking boy. She could respect that even though he always skipped out on her math lessons. Math wasn't for everyone. Besides, it reassured her that she would always be able to beat the shinobi-to-be when it came to the most basic sequence equations.
"Shut up, Mutt Boy," Sasuke said from behind his scroll. That caused a minor commotion: apparently, Sasuke didn't call people names in front of his mother. Mikoto made her son fully aware of this while Kiba and Nariko slunk away to get out of the line of fire. Even Akamaru retreated to the kitchen to escape that display of maternal wrath.
"So there is going to be cake!" Kiba grinned, pointing at the oven. Again, Nariko smirked and shrugged. "You're not cooking dinner," he said after checking the stove, the counter, and the fridge. "Ramen?"
She nodded as the noises of scolding subsided.
"Naruto's gonna be over the moon."
"I hope so. Ramen isn't that cheap."
Akamaru's yips for attention kept Kiba from responding to her complaints. Sasuke glared at them when they ventured back into the living room. He didn't seem to appreciate how they had abandoned him to the tender mercies of his mother.
"There's cake," Kiba told Sasuke in an attempt to get back in his good graces. It worked. Boys seemed to be led by their stomachs. Itsuki had been the same way. Shiro had claimed that she had been that way too, but he enjoyed fibbing to irritate her way too much to be believed.
"Cake?" Kiba, Sasuke, and Nariko braced themselves as Chouji came charging in at the mention of food.
"Not yet," Nariko warned him, but it was too late. He zipped past her into the kitchen, and she chased after him to protect her last-minute creation. "Patience, please. Where's Shika?"
"Slowing Naruto down." Chouji settled down on his haunches to watch the cake bake in the oven. Experience told her that his insatiable appetite was reined in for the moment, so she felt safe enough returning to the living room to exchange meaningless smalltalk with Uchiha-san.
Such boring exchanges were the most she had come to expect as far as friendly conversation with adults went. Sandaime-sama was an exception, but she didn't like to bother him unless she had to. He always unintentionally made her feel horribly inferior. All ninja seemed to have that affect on her, or at least any ninja above chuunin did. Maybe it was because she was being swamped with their twisted culture and being compared to them by the boys that invaded her house on a daily basis. In any case, Mikoto-san wasn't quite the same. She seemed to have embraced her retirement to some extent. Barely any hints of a ninja's nature clung to her. The mother persona dominated, and it was easy to interact with because Nariko understood it. Understanding was not connecting though.
"The boys are advancing fairly quickly," Mikoto-san murmured over the rim of her cup. "Naruto struggles along behind Kiba in most areas in combat. Of course, the Inuzuka always had the killer instinct. Combat is innate for them, but still, Naruto is having trouble with it. He's not quite willing to injure his opponent when sparring."
"Is that really bad?" Nariko asked.
"It is in a sense. Training should simulate real battle as closely as possible. Pulling shots in training translates over to battle. Being reluctant to make a hit connect could end up getting him killed."
Uchiha-san obviously knew that she was at fault for Naruto's reluctance. Nariko pursed her lips slightly and shut her eyes. "You correct him?"
"I will. His ninjutsu isn't great either, but that's not for the same reasons. Chakra control often eludes boys for a time. Control isn't something boys usually focus on. Most prefer power to finesse. His taijutsu is coming along though. His stance is good, and his strikes have power behind them for someone his age when the target isn't something that will suffer from his actions."
Nariko accepted Mikoto-san's subtle criticism with a nod. She had anticipated the clash of her values with those needed by a shinobi. She had tried to keep Naruto on her side of the fence, but she was losing him to his chosen career. It would be wiser to accept this gracefully than hold out and cause Naruto harm, but wisdom wasn't her thing. The damned ninja were taking him from her! His path was diverging from hers, and she couldn't stop him. "You know better than I. I hope you'll correct him as necessary."
Mikoto-san nodded and glanced at the boys, who were squabbling over which scroll to study. Nariko barked a warning at them when one scroll almost got thrown into her figurines. Shikamaru was apparently a master at delaying the inevitable because Ayame delivered the ramen long before the first echoes of Naruto's pounding feet could be heard on the steps from the third floor. He burst through the door with an impatient look on his face and tripped when he saw everyone, face planting as Shikamaru meandered onto the fourth floor landing.
"Baka, what kind of ninja trips over a bunch of shoes?" Shikamaru sighed as he stepped over his fallen comrade. "Is everything ready to go or should I have kept him out there even longer?"
"No, you did excellently," she assured him. "We're ready to go. We'd better dig into that ramen before it goes cold."
Naruto was on his feet in an instant the moment the word "ramen" slipped out of her mouth.
"Happy birthday, Naruto," Uchiha-san belated said, and all the other boys echoed her with varying degrees of enthusiasm and volume. Naruto's grin could have split his face, and Nariko was satisfied that all this trouble was worth it.
Food was devoured and petty spats were settled as simple games were played. Uchiha-san's tested ninja knowledge while Nariko's required math. The boys had groaned over how much like school this was until the competition heated up enough that Sasuke, Kiba, and Naruto started snarling at each other. Mikoto-san and Nariko exchanged exasperated glances as the trio's volume escalated. These three evidently competed even when they were practicing under Uchiha-san. Naruto and Sasuke were the primary rivals, but Kiba put in his two cents whenever he was in the mood. It got loud quickly.
"Enough," Mikoto-san snapped as Nariko waded into the fray and pushed the combatants out of each other's faces. "Shall we move on to presents or something else?"
"Presents!" Naruto crowed, bouncing around despite the thud of the broom from beneath his feet. That poor woman downstairs… Nariko would have been more sympathetic if she hadn't complained to the landlord about the smallest things.
Various ninja gifts were given by Naruto's friends, though Sasuke had graciously given Naruto the latest book in the series he read called The Adventures of Hiroji. Nariko didn't doubt that her brother's light was going to be on late for the next couple nights. She was going to have to try to curb that reading into the wee hours of the morning habit of his.
She produced her own present once kunai, shuriken, and the hip pouch were carefully piled alongside the book. Naruto jabbered away at the sight of the seedlings he had been saving up for, and Nariko's apprehension vanished. He hadn't just been feigning an interest in growing things. She was glad. Such a hobby would serve him well, balancing out the destruction he would wreak in his job. The other boys teased him, but Naruto blew a raspberry at them while carefully poking at the delicate sprouts.
He nattered on about how he would take care of each of the different types of plants until Mikoto-san sat up and announced that she and Sasuke should get going. They were about to slip on their sandals when the door burst open and Jaguar slipped in with her blade extended. Her mask was spattered with blood, and several cuts were bleeding on her bare arms.
"Get in the bathroom!" Her voice cut through the silence her arrival had created. Akamaru yipped worriedly when another appeared on the railing of the balcony, the tori-masked agent's weapon also out. "Now," she snarled when none of them moved fast enough. Sasuke hesitated beside his mother until Jaguar faced the woman. "You too," the agent growled, gesturing with her blade. "You're the ones I'm worried about the most. Get in there. Don't argue, or I'll have your wrist maimed for insubordination, Uchiha-san."
The use of Mikoto-san's clan name seemed to get her moving. She and Nariko perched on the rim of the bathtub once the door was locked and kept the boys silent in the darkness with warning touches or jabs when required.
Fear rippled through the boys in an almost tangible wave. Nariko could feel it in the shaking or tense muscles beneath her blind hands. Only Mikoto-san seemed composed, and Naruto was the calmest of the boys. He was used to this. It was a horrible thing to be used to crouching in the blackness of the bathroom while ANBU defended them from an unknown enemy. Nariko had to admit that these times severely tried her resolve not to regret her choice. Dealing with the unknown wasn't something she was particularly good at.
At long last, Jaguar-san spoke the password through the door. Uchiha-san let everyone else out after using her Sharingan on Jaguar, looking for a henge. An ANBU operative wearing a cat mask brought Jaguar updated orders. "Come with me," she said, incinerating the note. "I'm to take you all to the Hokage."
One terrifying journey through the dark streets later, the seven of them sat comfortably in the Hokage's bright and warm reception room. Mikoto-san sat calmly with the boys, but Nariko couldn't say that she was in a similar state. No one had ever been around other than her and Naruto when someone had dared to attack their home before. This change was embarrassing. The nervy expressions on the faces of the boys were marks of shame upon her. It didn't seem right for them to know all about what she and Naruto put up with from the villagers.
It wasn't proper for her and Naruto's public faces to be so shattered, though Naruto hardly seemed to mind. He was reacting the way he always did, but she couldn't seem to stay still. Instead, she paced, rubbing trembling fingers over the ridges of the scar on her cheek until the entire area was tender and probably quite red. The thought of what the other jounin parents would do when they heard how being around Naruto had endangered their children was making her hands shake.
All of them turned to the door the moment it opened. Jaguar beckoned to Mikoto-san. "He will see you now."
Nariko froze, glancing back and forth between Jaguar's blood-flecked mask and Mikoto-san. Sasuke betrayed all the confusion and worry that his mother hid so well. Dread coiled in Nariko's gut, but not for herself this time.
"My squad will be taking these children home," Jaguar said, pointing at Chouji, Kiba, and Shikamaru. "They have no business here now."
"Naruto," Nariko said, "thank your guests."
He glanced at her, but she was watching Mikoto-san set a hand on Sasuke's head before she walked towards the door. Jaguar made way for the wary-looking mother, her masked face turning to watch the door close behind her.
"Quickly." Jaguar herded his friends towards the door as Naruto struggled to gather his wits and say something that wouldn't sound too stupid and yet wouldn't get his sister on his case.
It was a difficult call, but he managed to mutter thanks and promises to meet up the next afternoon. He glanced at Riko, but she still wasn't watching. He turned back to his friends as Jaguar pushed and prodded them out the door. Chouji only had time for a feeble smile, Kiba a shrug, Akamaru a pathetic doggy whine, and Shikamaru a worried look before an exhausted sigh escaped as the door closed.
Now the only noise was the sharp thump of his sister's feet hitting the carpet as she stalked from one wall to the other in front of Sasuke, who was staring at the door with a lost look on his face. Naruto had never seen such strange reactions from either of them. "Why is it such a big deal?" he groused, crossing his arms. "This happens all the time."
"Don't say things like that."
"Why not if it's true?" he countered, glad that Neechan was paying attention to him now even if it was just a little. "Why are you making it such a big deal?"
"Because things like this aren't supposed to happen!" She spun on her heel to stare at him. "It's not normal for bloody ninja to come breaking down my door during a little boy's birthday party to make us hide in the bathroom! It's not normal for you to think that this is normal! At home—!" She broke off and went back to pacing, raking her fingers through her hair.
"This is home!" he shot back.
She always implied that their life here was flawed and that where she came from was better. Why couldn't she see that it was good here? Whenever she started talking about her home, not his, his tummy would clench and writhe. He was terrified that someday she would decide that being here wasn't worth the trouble, she would leave, and things would go back to how they had been before she had come. He would go back to the orphanage, friendless and at everybody's mercy. When she was like this, he wished that he were brave enough to burn her letters from home so she would forget that it even existed. The place and the people were a fairytale to him that she was obsessed with. It had no bearing upon his reality.
He never got the chance to hear her retort. A strangled scream of terrible pain came from Old Man's office, and Sasuke, paler than Naruto had ever seen him, went running for the door despite the cat-masked ANBU standing guard. Riko-nee grabbed Sasuke when he didn't respect the agent's refusal to let him through.
"It's his mother," his sister forced out between gritted teeth as she struggled to hold Sasuke back.
Naruto gulped.
The ANBU must have been blind and stupid because he didn't move.
"Let him pass."
Still the ANBU stood firm.
"Kaasan!" called Sasuke. Naruto grimaced, almost embarrassed on his friend's behalf at how sissy that had sounded. The lack of answer made Sasuke's cry less ridiculous, especially when Old Man's tired and sad sounding voice called out the order for Cat to let them in. Cat stepped aside, and Sasuke battled his way out of Riko-nee's grip and wrenched the door open just before he slammed into it.
The door banged off the wall and had enough redirected momentum to shut itself again, but Nariko grabbed it. She watched Sasuke scamper towards his mother, who was curled up in her chair. Sasuke hesitantly clutched at the fabric of his mother's shirt. He was brave. Most children would have fallen short of the mark and stood wavering with confusion and awkwardness in the face of their broken parent. To see the pillar of stability and authority crumble often drove them into a similarly broken and confused state. Sasuke was made of sterner stuff.
The Hokage's face made the anxiety inside her explode. Defeat was written in every line. He tore his eyes away from the frozen Mikoto-san and met her stare. Defeat and regret… Oh no…
"Itachi," she whispered, some part of her certain about her guess and yet another denying it passionately. There was no way a fourteen-year-old could have done something so terrible it would break a former ANBU agent, right?
"Yes, Itachi," the Sandaime agreed. Sasuke's head snapped up and began shaking side to side in denial, but the Hokage didn't relent. The old man stared at the Uchiha boy with something Nariko might have called wonder in different circumstances. "Itachi has done a terrible thing this night. As I just finished informing your mother, all but eight other members of your clan are dead."
Nariko couldn't bring herself to look away despite a desperate desire to. She didn't want to see the adoration Sasuke regarded his brother with curdle. She clutched her own brother's hand when he stepped closer.
Denial.
"No… no, that's not true," Sasuke insisted, shaking his head. "Aniki wouldn't do something like that!"
"I'm afraid that he did, Sasuke-kun," the Hokage said as Mikoto-san began shaking in her chair.
Anger.
"No! He wouldn't!" Sasuke shouted, stomping forward a couple steps as though preparing to beat the horrible truth out of existence.
"He did just a few hours ago. I had a squad of ANBU watching him because of the information you gave me not long ago, ready to take him into custody the moment we had reason to or enough evidence."
Mikoto-san's head snapped up, and she stared at her son, who glanced back at her almost guiltily. "Information?" she managed to croak.
"Sasuke-kun was worried enough about the changes in his brother's behaviour that he brought things to my attention with Matsuku-san's encouragement." This time, Nariko couldn't stop the flinch that went through her when Uchiha-san shot a glance her way. Even as she cursed Sarutobi-sama for mentioning her involvement, she blessed him for continuing with his narration of events. "Shisui's death prompted me to put Itachi under observation when Sasuke described the changes in his brother's eye. The shuriken design—"
"The what!" asked Mikoto-san.
"The shuriken pattern Itachi's Sharingan had taken on after the event was suspicious. Sasuke spotted it only once, directed at Fugaku's back."
Mikoto-san almost huddled back in her chair, white-faced and glassy-eyed. "Oh no," she whispered.
"Is it what I suspected?" Sandaime-sama asked, his dark eyes staring out at the bereaved mother from the shadow of his hat as he clasped his gnarled hands in front of his mouth.
"Mangekyou," Mikoto-san breathed, looking horrified. "Where did he…? When…? No, I know when. Oh, Shisui, poor boy. I told them those records should have been burned! I told him, but he didn't listen. He said they were clan history… that the clan could be trusted to know better…"
Sasuke obviously didn't understand any of this because he took advantage of the tense silence to go back on the offensive. "Why didn't you stop him then!" he snarled, clenching his small, pale fists by his sides. "You said you had ANBU there! Why didn't they stop him?"
When Naruto made motions to move forwards, perhaps to stop Sasuke or assist him, Nariko clenched his hand tighter and kept him in place, shaking her head when he glanced up at her.
"They tried." The Hokage's head bowed under some terrible weight. "The second watch found them. They are all beyond our reach. Those that are not dead are held captive in some genjutsu that even our experts cannot break. Itachi managed to elude the second watch and their reinforcements when they finally found him. Most of that watch was taken down as well and he is now very far beyond my reach. Every effort will be made to bring him back—"
Bargaining.
"What about Father?" Sasuke shrunk in on himself a little when the Sandaime only stared sadly at him. "You can bring him back, right? We've got good medics, and Aniki wouldn't hurt Father! He just put him under genjutsu. Right?"
Nariko didn't blame the Hokage for not being willing to answer that question. The poor boy was trembling, and his hands were twitching as though he didn't know what to do with them.
"Sasuke," she somehow forced words past the lump in her throat. "Sasuke, I'm… I don't… I don't think the Hokage can do that." The confusion in his dark eyes forced her to take a few hesitant steps forward, dragging Naruto along with her.
"But—!"
"Sasuke, stop," Mikoto-san commanded, pushing herself out of her chair to kneel before him. "Life isn't something we can barter for." The Uchiha woman's voice was strangled-sounding. She set one hand on her son's shoulder and the other on her abdomen. "It can only be created or destroyed by action. Itachi… Itachi has destroyed and left only twelve of our bloodline. This cannot be changed."
"Twelve?" the Sandaime asked, sounding puzzled. "Even counting Itachi, there are only eleven."
"No, there are twelve unless things go even more wrong than they have." Mikoto-san pulled Sasuke into her embrace, closing her eyes against the possibility she had dared to utter. Nariko watched the Sandaime's eyes and the horror and terrible guilt that flooded them as the realization hit.
"Did your son know?"
"No son of mine would murder his family," Mikoto-san snarled, cradling Sasuke's head against her shoulder. "No one knew. I wasn't ready to tell them yet. It's been so long since Sasuke and things have been so bad; I wasn't sure he would… Itachi can't ever find out."
"Of course; I will see to it. He left something, but I'm having my people check it over for hidden contact poisons or seals. I will pass it along to you the moment I am certain it is safe."
Once Mikoto-san nodded, Nariko found her voice with some difficulty.
"If I may," she whispered, and all the adults in the room turned to her. She swallowed back nervousness. "I offer my home, small though it is for four. We, Naruto and I, would be glad and honoured to have you stay with us at least for tonight." She left it unsaid that the Uchiha manor would be in no state to give them rest. The knot of horrible guilt loosened when Mikoto-san nodded.
"I'm glad that's settled," the Hokage said with just the right amount of briskness to keep from seeming callous. "Uchiha-san, I have your remaining relatives under guard and of course you will receive the same—"
"I won't need it yet," she informed him in clipped tones, the hint of tears now absent from her voice. "I will see to clearing the compound. As clan head, it is my duty."
"Of course, Uchiha-san; I will do everything in my power to right this wrong."
It was disturbing to watch the mother/housewife Nariko was familiar with crumble to reveal the hardened jounin beneath. That jounin frightened her. That jounin was stone, almost unruffled by these events, save for the obvious desire to even the score. That jounin didn't know how to cry and grieve, it only knew how to kill and bring pain. That jounin didn't see Itachi as a son, only as a target. The sudden creation of emotional distance frightened Nariko the most. Mikoto the jounin, the former ANBU operative, could pick and choose whom she cared about and turn her heart to stone for everyone outside that set.
"Loss of this magnitude will end in retribution. I will see to it that he does not get off lightly." At last, Mikoto-san stood up, pulling Sasuke to his feet with her. "I want to look at what my former son has done to my family." She took a step away from her son to assume a posture that immediately struck Nariko as military.
The Hokage looked reluctant. "Very well; I forbid you from bringing Sasuke though. It is not pleasant in the least."
"Of course; vengeance is not the answer to this, at least not right now. I will not lose two sons to this madness." Uchiha-san turned to her remaining son and held her arms out to him so he could seek craved comfort, the ninja retreating beneath the motherly exterior again. Clutching him to her chest, she whispered the same sort of soothing phrases that Nariko knew only too well from her own father. "Sasuke, I want you to stay with Naruto and Riko tonight." She glanced up at the latter, who nodded.
With that, Uchiha-san detangled herself from Sasuke and pushed him towards Nariko, who gathered him into her arms and pulled Naruto to her side as well with her free arm. Satisfied that her remaining son was safe, Mikoto-san nodded to the Hokage and disappeared in a puff of smoke with five ANBU escorts to take charge of the massive burial detail ahead of her.
"Hokage-sama, can I have a private word? These two are too young to be exposed to this sort of thing if we can help it. As it is, I think they will have nightmares." When he nodded, she bowed slightly before kneeling down in front of them, setting a hand on each of their shoulders. "I'll be as quick as I can, okay? Wait for me in the chairs out there." As soon as they nodded, uncharacteristically silent, she summoned the most encouraging smile she could and gave them a gentle push out the door before settling herself in the chair Mikoto-san had abandoned.
"I want your permission to keep Uchiha-san and Sasuke with me for the next couple of days. I don't want them going back to the Uchiha manor for a while. A change of pace will keep them from falling into a funk and contemplating revenge. Sasuke is obsessive enough as it is."
The Sandaime's eyes were blank save for the regret the lines on his flesh enhanced in the falsely happy light. "I see the complications more clearly. Only too many nukenin would be happy to take him on should he have inherited the Sharingan, my traitorous pupil Orochimaru being one of the most eager. I have been worried about this possibility ever since the death of Uchiha Obito." He followed up on his grim prediction with a smoke ring.
Nariko moved out of range of the smoke, her eyes watering. She hated the habit even though her father had possessed it in a mild sense. The smell reminded her of summer nights on the patio at his feet playing shougi or chess, but she could not find comfort in the smell of the Sandaime's smoke. He used a harsher brand of tobacco. "Why is that?"
"Obito-kun had his medic-nin teammate replace his other teammate's ruined eye with his Sharingan eye just before passing away. The recipient still has the eye. He's made a name for himself with it. That development interested Orochimaru, who had plans of passing on the bloodline trait to unrelated shinobi, himself included."
Again, she was struck by just how much a shinobi's existence seemed to revolve around sacrifice. It worried her. What would Naruto be made to give? What more would Sasuke lose? "Did Itachi know this?"
"He may have become aware of it. I am sorry that it seems your trust was misplaced."
"Not so; you did try." He didn't need her superfluous forgiveness. He probably only asked for it because he was unsure whether or not he would ever get it from the people that he really required it from. "Four ANBU should have been more than enough."
She spoke with conviction that she didn't feel. What did she know about Itachi's skills and about the combined strength of four ANBU? The books she had been reading the boys were mere beginner's guides. What those ninja must have known was beyond her comprehension, but the Sandaime needed some sort of reassurance and this pale, fragile statement was the best she could come up with on such short notice.
"But it was not, so now they and so many others are suffering for my overconfidence. This is yet another sign that I am losing my touch," he grunted almost bitterly. "Work quickly on what Jiraiya gives you."
Ah, that was why he looked so old. He was losing confidence in his abilities. She could think of no words to reassure him and it wasn't her place, so she acted the way a good subordinate should. "Of course, Hokage-sama."
Mikoto the ANBU agent walked through the moonlit streets of the Uchiha compound, stepping lightly over the blood-splattered ground and holding down the food she had recently consumed with an iron will. She would not desecrate this place any more than it already had been by her former son's hand. His actions were still unfathomable to her. He had been ANBU to the core. How could he have betrayed the Hokage like this? It didn't make any sense… Thoughts fragmented, and she shook them away. Now was not the time to speculate.
Only extreme need drove her into the bedrooms of her nieces and nephews and little cousins, all slain. She reached out with a slightly shaking hand and drew the bloodstained blanket up over the face of Hiroe-chan, her slender little neck slit. Poor little girl hadn't even had time to scream the terror written all over her disbelieving face. She had trailed after Itachi on more than one occasion, jabbering happily about the fan dance she had been learning as part of her duty to the clan. Mikoto had watched this out the window while washing dishes. Nothing of that moment remained in this frozen corpse.
That entire meeting with the Hokage had been a farce, a cover for the true machinations going on beneath the surface. Matsuku-san and Sasuke's evidence had given him the perfect cover story to hide what had truly been going on behind. Even through her sorrow, she knew that. The Hokage's eyes had told her that. He had been too late. He had been overruled. What Itachi's actions had to do with this, she didn't know. Sandaime-sama had failed though. He had been talking with Fugaku, but things hadn't been going fast enough. There had been too much suspicion on both sides. She had seen this and had despaired. Even in her darkest nightmares, she had never imagined something like this happening. She had seen war, but not one-sided slaughter.
ANBU had never been here. She could tell by the way those picking their way around moved. They were shocked. They probably had been outside the ghetto walls. Only Itachi had been here: Itachi and another whose tracks were muffled and unrecognizable to her.
ANBU had never tried to arrest her former son. She had seen that in the Hokage's face. He had failed to hide that lie. There had never been any ANBU agents killed or taken. How he knew about the effects of the eyes though… Tsukuyomi's effects were only known within the clan since there hadn't been a user for decades. Now that puzzled her analytical mind. Why and how, those questions pressed at her.
The one called Jaguar-san must have scratched herself to create the blood. Why feign battle? Who would have tattled? Whose image had she been made to protect?
There were too many questions and no answers. She needed to see that message.
She stopped avoiding the issue at last when an ANBU in a boar mask carried the little girl's cooling body away. Standing up, she swept towards the house she had made her own. It took more will than she had ever needed before to open her front door and walk towards the room she had shared with her husband. She rested her hand on that door and paused, debating whether to taint her last memories of her beloved with the image of his corpse. She hoped Itachi had made it clean. Steeling her soul, she pushed the door open and slipped over to his side, kneeling down and pulling him into her arms. A gut wound extended all the way up his chest. He would have died slowly and in much pain.
She lowered his cold lids to obscure the empty eyes. Whatever had made him Fugaku to her had slipped away in death. A gaping hole began to open up inside of her, and she bit her lower lip. She clutched at the corpse and forced herself not to bawl. He had left her all alone. He had promised to stay with her. He had promised… Something inside her shattered.
A wild howl echoed through the streets. The loneliness in it was terrifying and even the ANBU gathering corpses paused. The sheer agony in it made many walking the streets nearby positive they were hearing restless spirits.
Snake-28 slipped away to deal with other corpses, abandoning the jounin to the tears she wouldn't shed because she had forgotten how.