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Chapter 10
The pranks had to take a back seat for a while. There were two far more pressing matters coming to a head. Both of which had been key factors in the cause of despair in the previous time-line: the Uchiha and Danzo.
The Hokage had reasoned that the latter took priority. They were finally in a position to be rid of the problem. In the dead of the night, Sarutobi and 6 teams of loyal ANBU entered ROOT headquarters, cut off Danzo's retreat – with the help of some of Naruto's seals – and confronted him with the evidence. He was arrested, but the group was set upon by ROOT ninja and in the resulting struggle Danzo lost his life. Needless to say the council was furious that they had not been consulted on the matter. This was countered when subtle mentions of why the council would have denied point blank Danzo's betrayal of Konoha and found some way to cease the investigation. The still arguing council members where thoroughly silenced when the mass of undisputable evidence that had been slowly accumulated over the past two years was shown to them.
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It was a quiet day in late autumn and was finally the climax of a two year long plan to remove those disloyal to the Hokage from the Uchiha clan via a clan civil war. All the loyal civilians of the clan were nowhere to be found in the compound, neither were any of the children. They had planted their reasons for being elsewhere weeks beforehand, be it an invitation to an evening out or a visit to friends. Some had been gradually building up routines over the weeks where they would quite often be away from the compound so that on this specific early evening their missing presence would not be questioned.
The peaceful streets belied the harsh reality that was going on behind closed doors and in the dark alleyways. The ninja loyal to the Hokage had been split into their teams and assigned different areas of the compound along with a list of the targets that should be in that location. Itachi's team were the back-up group. They were to be informed of any targets that were not where they were assumed to be, but they also had their own list of targets that their research indicated would not be in the compound at that point in time.
The others had already reported the completion of their tasks and Itachi himself was on his last. He stood in the middle of the street so as to lure the ninja out of hiding and into an attack. The young teen sighed at the predictability of his opponent as he heard the soft whistle of air with the kunai's release. With his bloodline activated he turned and caught the weapon in his fingertips. He didn't stop in his turn; instead he continued his spin, re-launched the metal and sent it hurtling back to its owner. Itachi kept up the spin until he was facing the opposite direction and walked away. Not once did he look back to the traitor sporting a kunai between the eyes as he headed towards his family home. His mother was waiting.
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Mikoto Uchiha sat on one of the kitchen chairs pulled away from the table and absently sharpened a kunai with a bored look on her face. It had been two hours since she had knocked out her husband with the frying pan and tied him to another of the kitchen chairs with a null-chakra seal over his heart, but it had been a whole hour since she had applied the gag to turn the infuriating man's sexist protests into mumbled growls.
Her eldest son appeared in the room and her husband's eyes took on a commanding light while the mumbles grew in volume. "He's not going to help you." She informed him with a small smirk, which grew at her 'beloved's' shock. She turned to her son. "Is it finished?" she asked hoping her voice didn't shake. There were a couple of people she had considered friends that had supported the coup, but none of them were going to come out of this without feeling pain on some level.
Itachi nodded and inclined his head towards his father. "He is the last."
At those words fear made its way onto Fugaku's face as realisation dawned. His carefully laid plans were out the window, his own wife and son had betrayed him, his supporters were now all dead – his wife had informed him of what was occurring while she was waiting – and he had the sinking feeling that this wasn't just the end of his plans, but of everything – for him at least.
Mikoto had been adamant that she be the one to eradicate the illustrious clan leader, not just in pay back for all the submissive treatment she had received over the years, but it seemed fitting for the new Clan Head to erase the old one. She stood and removed the gag, her eyes sending a deadly glare and warning Fugaku to stay silent.
"You have only yourself and those arrogant enough to follow you to blame." She began with her back to the window. "You let your egos grow so large that all sense was pushed from your heads and nearly led to our clan's destruction. Those of us with our sanity still intact have decided to act and bring about the change needed to save us from damnation."
She slammed her fist on the kitchen worktop at the opening of her husband's mouth, effectively silencing him once more.
"There will be no more acting like we are better than everyone else. There will be no one disloyal to the Hokage and no more ill treatment of women and children!" her voice had risen as she went on, but her next words were quiet, icily sharp and held a steel determination. "With you, the Uchiha stood alone and showed its strength to the village. Now the Uchiha will stand with the village and show our strength to the world!"
She let the words sink in. She knew her husband too well; he would say a retort sooner or later. On this occasion he opted for sooner.
"You stupid Bit-!"
Thud
The impossibly sharp kunai infused with chakra imbedded into the wall behind him, but not before passing through his open mouth, neck and then spinal cord.
Mikoto looked to Itachi. "You should never insult a woman."
"Yes Mother."
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"So there were only 83 fatalities in total?" the Third asked of the young ninja before him. Thank goodness only 4 of those were our side. I doubt it would have been so little without the element of surprise. I'm glad I listened to Naruto and not put it all off for another 7 months.
"Yes Sir."
"I'm just glad it went as smoothly as it did."
"Indeed." Itachi agreed but there was something in his tone that perked the leader's interest.
"What is on your mind?"
"The idea for a Civil War seemed to come out of nowhere as we were both stuck for answers, but not 24 hours later this option was put forward. I cannot help but think that there is another individual out there to whom I owe my gratitude." He summarised.
Sarutobi chuckled. He should have expected the quiet genius to figure it out. He'll know if I lie to him so might as well tell him the truth. He linked his fingers together and leaned onto the desk.
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The pair of fox children walked their friend home. They knew very well what Sasuke would find when he got home but did their best to keep him ignorant of the nights events until his mother was given the chance to explain everything to him, the same as they had been doing for the rest of the day.
:Flashback:
Sasuke had just run into the class as Sakura hit Naruto on the head for telling a bad joke before he came to where Fumiko was sitting and held something out to her. "Do you think you can fix this?" he seemed to be almost pleading her to say 'yes'.
Startled at the sudden and breathless request, she studied the bundle of wires closer. It was a very smashed up ninja wireless, but it looked fixable. "Sure." She nodded and took the battered contraption.
Naruto nudged her from behind. She glanced at his pointed look and jerked slightly with understanding. "Why don't to come to ours after classes? It shouldn't take too long to put back to rights, maybe until just past dinner time."
Sasuke looked thoughtful then got a sneaky expression. "Make that tomato pasta-bake you and Hinata made last week and I'm there."
"Me too!" Choji piped up.
"And me!" Sakura joined in with her hand in the air.
Fumiko sweatdropped. "Alright, but you all have to help pay for ingredients."
A small chorus of cheers sounded around her. I'm going to need Hinata's help with this...
After class the friends headed out of the academy, Hinata had been roped into helping and Shino had joined their number, but they had to stop and support each other laughing when their latest victim was carried past them. He was making a 'chitter' sound and had a bucked teeth look to him. He must have only just been freed from the storage cupboard where he had been in the company of close to two dozen squirrels.
When they recovered they wiped away the tears and made their way to the grocery store to purchase the mountain of ingredients Hinata and Fumiko now needed for dinner.
:End Flashback:
Mikoto was waiting at the door for her youngest son and smiled softly when she saw him arrive with his two friends. She didn't care about what was sealed within Naruto, what she did care about was that her Sasuke had been much happier since becoming friends with him, and the rest of their little group, even if he did get in trouble every so often. She was one of the few parents that saw the – creative – pranks as ninja training and cast a blind eye to it as long as she was never one of the targets. An image of the Third covered in pink paint came to mind.
With a mental shake she dispelled the memory as Sasuke approached looking worried and confused. She held out her hand to him. He took it and waved goodbye to his friends, mimicked by his mother, and was led inside the house.
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"How do you think he'll take it?" she asked Naruto as she lay on the new rug reading up on audio storage devices and swishing her tail from side to side.
"Definitely better than he would of had his older brother slaughtered everyone but him."
They had both arrived home in a sour mood with worry for their friend weighing heavily on their hearts and minds.
As long as he doesn't declare vengeance and get depressing it'll be fine. Kyuubi lectured.
Can't argue with you there.
Really? You disappoint me Kit. The fox in his head taunted.
Go to Hell... Naruto thought half-heartedly.
Already there. Naruto smile weakly. The damn critter had a smart answer to almost everything. You have no idea...
The smile widened.
There was a knock on the door.
Furry extras gone Fumiko asked. "Who do you suppose that is? It's kinda late for visitors."
"How should I know? I don't really recognise the scent and you haven't put up that camera yet."
"Have ANBU even noticed it was missing?"
"Only when they spotted one of the pictures was suddenly crystal clear and the rest were still fuzzy."
She let out an exasperated sigh.
There was another knock.
"You gonna get that or what?"
"It's your door moron."
Naruto sweatdropped. "Oh yeah..." he sheepishly walked over and opened the door.
There stood Itachi.
A blood spattered Itachi.
Naruto stared quietly in wide-eyed surprise just like his flatmate who had peered around the corner of the entranceway on her knees.
With arms flat to his side's Itachi said. "Ask anything of me and it is yours. You have my eternal gratitude."
The two pairs of eyes widened further.
The visitor gave an extremely rare, deep, formal bow and vanished.
They blinked at the empty space then each other.
"You think Gramps ratted us out?" he asked her under his breath.
"Looks like." She replied, stunned. Such a show of respect from the skilled Uchiha was so unheard of that it had become a local legend that if it were to ever happen a world altering event would befall the village.