Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.
Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.
Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.
I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change
Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.
The Uchiha Massacre
- Chapter 10 -
The next four months passed quickly. The team completed several missions, all of 'B' rank. Everyone knew that the team would be recommended for the chuunin exams. When the recommendation meeting finally happened, they were the team with the most experience. It was generally assumed that all three members had a very good chance of passing the exam. This time, the exams were being held in Rock country as a sign of trust. They left three weeks before the beginning of the exam in order to be there and well rested. All twelve teams that Konoha was sending were traveling in a single large group. The pace was slow and Itachi was impatient with how much time was being taken up with travel instead of practicing for the exam.
Sachiko noticed her teammate's frustration and walked over to him. "Itachi-kun, I bet that you can't take a shuriken from each of the other genin without them noticing before we reach the hidden village."
He scoffed at her. It was a juvenile trick that he hadn't even participated in when he was in the academy. Then again … "It would at least be some form of training."
She smiled, kicking up some dirt with one sandal as she walked, "And it would be a good chance for out team to try and learn the capabilities of the other teams. Perhaps a race? Who can complete a stolen set of shuriken first?" She was pretty sure he would go for it, especially with that logic.
The third member of their team, Nobu, was soon brought into the plan. Since there would be too much of a chance of someone noticing three shuriken gone and alerting the rest of the party, they broke the teams up. Each of them would be responsible for stealing a shuriken off of a different member of each team. Winner would get dinner paid for by the other two once they got back to Konoha after the exams.
Four days later, they were a short ways off from the rest of the group. The three genin huddled together and whispered as they sketched out what they learned on a blank scroll. Itachi was the winner with 12 shuriken in 3 days 1 hour. Sachiko only took an extra four hours. Nobu, their third member, had just completed his set before sundown. While Itachi was pleased he won, even more important was the information this gained them. They had a listing of the strengths and weaknesses of every genin traveling with them. They knew how their team could defeat any one of the other teams, and they had gained an insight into how to defeat each individually as well.
The jônin sensei had taken to patrolling the group using as much stealth as possible. All three members of the team had not been surprised by this, or fooled by it. They just let the other jônin sensei believe that they were fooled. Whenever one of the sensei had come over to check on what they were doing during their planning session, the team had simply started talking about old missions they had been on. However, they knew their own Jônin-sensei would not believe it. When he approached them, he did not bother with stealth and they simply made room for him in their little gathering.
"And what have you three been up to? Everyone is wondering why you are over here recounting past missions. What did you guys do?" He looked around at his little group of students. He was extremely proud of them. They had turned from three individuals into a very powerful team. However, they were a team and he knew that they acted like a team. Individuals were easy to predict, a well working team was hard. When they handed him the scroll with their notes on it, he could not help smiling. Yes, his genin would pass; there was no way they would not. This was proof their information gathering skills were superior. Their teamwork was excellent. Their individual skills had been honed. All three portions of the test they were ready for, at least as much as any genin ever could be.
He felt a little unfair confiscating the stolen shuriken from his students; however, he was obligated to. Anyways, he would enjoy the looks on the other sensei's faces when he said that his team had played an academy style prank on their teams and were completely undetected. He was not going to say a word about the intelligence his team had discovered. No, they had worked hard for that. As night fell over the caravan once again, he was even more confident that his three genin would be heading home as chuunin. This was the most prepared team he had ever brought to the chuunin exams.
In the morning, the other sensei distributed the shuriken back to their rightful owners. The decision had been made to say it had been a test the jônin had conducted and to mention how poorly each had done. Turning the embarrassment into a leaning opportunity was actually a smart idea and could benefit Konoha, so the teams' sensei went with the plan. When he met with his team to tell them how 'disappointed' the jônin were in all the genin, he actually congratulated them. He also warned them not to try a stunt like that again.
A few days after that, they finally crossed into Rock country and the attitudes of all the Jônin changed. None of the genin had fought in the war with Rock; however, all of the jônin had. This was a return to enemy territory for them and something that put the entire group ill at ease. The leisurely pace they had followed in Fire country was gone and instead replaced with a much more brisk pace. The jônin had every intention of getting this group of genin to the barracks they had been assigned for the chuunin exam. They also intended to make sure those barracks were safe and easily fortified. The political decision to show a trust between leaf and rock by having the Konoha genin attend a rock sponsored Chuunin exam made sense, but the men and women actually sent were not fooled into thinking it was safe. It was extremely dangerous, dangerous but necessary.
Finally, the Konoha contingent reached the barracks they had been assigned for the chuunin testing. The jônin were quickly in motion making sure they were secure, traps were checked for, poisons tested for. The place seemed to be safe as well as easily defensible. At last, the genin were allowed to unpack in their rooms. Each genin group had been given a single room with three beds. While most of the teams complained about this, since Konoha gave each visiting genin their own room, Itachi's team preferred it this way. They had no intention of trusting rock either. The suspicions of their jônin sensei were well founded and they were not going to be taken unaware. The entire time they were in Rock country they fully intended to act as if they were in enemy territory. Watch schedules, testing all their food, anything that would keep them from being injured or killed. They did not see it as paranoid and they were used to watch schedules anyways.
The next week was uneventful as they waited for the first test for the chuunin exams. They did not know what form the test would take, but all three knew it would be some sort of information gathering test. All the genin were seated randomly in the room. As they had planned in advance, all three of the team were dressed identically in black including black sunglasses. What the glasses hid, were that Itachi had his Sharingan activated. They used a combination of genjutsu and observation to pass the test. Small illusions created between their teammate's eyes and the sunglasses where no proctor could possibly see. Their training as a team paid off. They were one of nine teams to pass the first test. One of three to have come from Fire.
The breakdown after the first test was that three teams were from Fire. Three were from Earth country, one was from Wind and one from Water country. The final team was from the small country of Grass. The nine teams immediately were escorted to the location of the second test. Each team was led to a cave. They were told the caves all connected at various points within the maze of the mountain, but only one emerged on the other side.
As the three genin stood at the front of their cave, their Jônin sensei and a representative of rock were there with them. They were each handed a small glass ball. The instructions were simple. For a team to pass, they had to survive to reach the exit. Everything was fair, there were no rules. Only one out of every five balls would contain an item it took to unlock the door blocking them from leaving. The more balls, the greater the chances of a genin team getting out. Without any more advice from their sensei, the three entered the cave to be sealed in as a Rock-nin performed an earth Jutsu sealing the cave and blocking out all light.
The three did not waste chakra on anything fancy. They did not announce their presence by using fire. Sachiko and Nobu fell to their normal sides of Itachi and let him lead them using his Sharingan. It was not the best way of navigating, but Itachi was capable of holding his clan ability in place for every waking moment of his day. His stamina with the technique had improved with constant use. He had a Uchiha physiology, it was adapted to the slight drain of the Sharingan, fine tuning it until the eyes took as little to fuel them as possible. They moved like that, as if they truly were shadows and not just shinobi named for shadow.
The three worked quickly, locating a team from Rock. They followed the Rock nin without a word. In the dim light of the torches the other team carried, Sachiko started to weave her illusion. The member in the back thought he was keeping pace with his teammates, but he had become trapped in the illusion. Slowly his teammates were getting farther and farther ahead. As that was done, Itachi moved into the third man's spot, another illusion woven around him to appear to be their third man. Nobu moved into action and killed the Rock Genin that Sachiko had drawn away from the rest of his group and they took his marble. When they caught up with Itachi, a silent command was given and the remaining two members of the team were dead in an instant.
Now with six of the glass orbs, the team proceeded towards the end of this maze, carrying the torches from the fallen Rock Ninja. They could easily have found the exit and the odds would have been with them for having a valid orb to open the door. The reason they had targeted a Rock team first was that they had assumed the 'randomly' given out orbs were not exactly random. Now with the three orbs from a Rock team, they had an excellent chance of having their way out, but then they would have to face more people in the final. Only the other two teams from fire were known risks in this. Thus, they went hunting.
Seven hours later, they sat in a small circle eating their rations. The other two teams from Fire did not have rations on them, but Itachi's team was always prepared. The water village corpses were in a neat pile. They now had nine orbs. By simple math, their chances were getting better and better. Nine teams, twenty-seven orbs, that meant either 5 or 6 keys existed.
Nobu looked at his teammates, "Well, If there are five or six orbs, then the chances of the other two leaf teams having them all are extremely slim. We could leave them so we have someone to face in the final exam instead of having to fight one another."
Sachiko frowned, "But if it I just nine of us, then we will have to fight each other still." She looked at her teammates, "I don't want to fight either of you."
Itachi stood up, signaling an end to the break and the other two started to do the same. What they did not expect was for him to weigh in. "We will take out as many non leaf teams as possible, and then when we face each other in the finals, we will not use lethal means." With that, the discussion was at an end and the three genin moved on.
The next team from Rock was dispatched almost as easily as the first one and brought their orb total to twelve. There were only three valid targets left, one from wind, one from grass and one from rock. That was when they came across a grisly sight. One of the other teams from Konoha had been killed. A quick check of the corpses proved it was by poisoned weapons. The three moved more carefully now, the team from Grass was nearby and had at least six orbs.
Itachi's team found the team from Suna first. They put up a better fight. They had used the same technique of separating the rear most person, but this time the other two Sand-nin noticed before Itachi's teammates could catch up. He should have been more prepared. He had been taken by surprise by the two Suna-genin, but he had taken both targets out by the time his teammates reached him. He was badly bleeding from his side though. They had fifteen orbs with two teams they were willing to target. The grass team had at least six orbs on them and the rock, if still alive had another three. The remaining three were hopefully still in the hands of the other fire team.
Nobu stood guard as Sachiko stitched up Itachi. Unlike a lot of teams, they didn't have anyone studying medical jutsu. They all knew how to treat wounds, although they were one of the least injured teams typically on missions. They were careful, but they also had to be. With Itachi injured, all three decided without another word that they would go to the exit. They had more than half the orbs, the chances of not having one that would open the door was extremely slim. It took another three hours of traveling and avoiding the remaining teams before they made their way to the door. Soon, they were out of the caves and in the bright sunlight of the next day.
They were led away by their sensei after telling the officials about which teams they had taken out and reporting the deaths of the other fire team. They were the first team out, leaving a team from rock, a team from fire, and the grass team all unaccounted. As they rested in the barracks, which had been provided for them, one of the other jônin from fire walked into the room. As she healed Itachi's side, she let slip that the third Fire team had been found dead. She did not know if they were killed by the team from grass or the remaining team from rock.
Their sensei brought the three genin dinner and they ate in the room, still waiting to hear what was the outcome of the first test. At the most it would be nine genin participating. They knew nothing about the other six. All of their intelligence gathering had been on their fellow Fire genin.
When dawn broke the next day, the team was brought to a room in the heart of the village. The chart on the wall showed that Nine Genin would be competing. Three from Fire, three from Rock, and three from Grass. Nobu and an extremely pale boy from the Grass country drew the extra fight. They did not gain any information on their opponents, but they did at least know they could not face each other until the semi finals at the earliest. They had one month to prepare.