Secret Treasures of the Uchiha
by TimeLoopedPowerGamer

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.

Summary: An AU story from the moment Sasuke decides not to get up again in his first encounter with Itachi, after the Chūnin Exam finals and invasion. Instead of spending a couple of months in a coma while Naruto is off finding Tsunade, he explores the abandoned Uchiha compound, finds a hidden storehouse, and gets dragged kicking and screaming by Hiashi Hyūga into clan politics and an arranged marriage.

Warnings on content: Rated M for face-stabbing levels of violence and also some mature content, mostly consisting of frustrated teens not getting any. So, really more like immature content. Also, foul language, and lots of it.


Chapter Twelve

"I-Is this how it is g-going to be, Uchiha-san?" she asked quietly. Sasuke-san, walking a few steps ahead and to her left, ignored her. Suzume-san was walking behind them, on Hinata's right and a few steps back. Part of Hinata's brain noticed it was a standard travel formation, right echelon, meant to protect the center member with strong rear defense in this case because of the trailing senior member.

Correct response to an ambush was to scatter, removing the chance of a single large ninjutsu taking everyone out. Members would regroup at the next emergency waypoint after disengaging, forming a retreating battle line to cover their escape with the stronger members providing ranged fire for the weaker or close-range members. In other words, protecting her and giving her the best chance to escape because she was the weakest.

Hinata was still shaking a little from the earlier encounter, switching her Byakugan on and off at irregular intervals to scan her surroundings. Flickering lines and shapes covered her vision as she took in the immediate area. All buildings nearby (two-story, wooden, no termites) were empty storefronts with storage rooms. The street had a few people walking past, none registered as ninja level except for her party. She scanned ahead and down the next street as well as behind her. Two ninjas, each appeared to be chūnin level, were walking away from them on a side street. Byakugan pulled back out of tunnel mode, again seeing her immediate area in perfect detail – about a thirty feet diameter, full 360 degrees (well, 358 minus her blind spot, but one didn't usually think about that – turning your head even slightly corrected for it).

Sasuke-san was walking in front of her, Sharingan off. She saw Suzume-san had her Byakugan on also, her eyes glowing with chakra. Hinata blushed and immediately shut hers down. It wasn't exactly polite to just turn it on like that if you weren't on duty or training and Suzume-san must have noticed.

"Uchiha-san," Hinata growled, walking closer to him and speaking a little louder.

"Hn," he grunted in reply.

"W-Will your fangirls try to punch me every time we are in public, Uchiha-san?" she said, acid in every clipped syllable.

"Hn," he grunted in amusement. After a few more steps, he half-turned his head toward her. She could see his smirk now. "Next time, punch back. Weakling." Slightly shocked, Hinata kept walking with him in silence.

"I know she is your teammate, Uchiha-san," she started.

"Hn," he commented neutrally.

"But I could have taken her."

"Hn," he agree, after a few moments.

"Next time, Uchiha-san, please do not interfere."

"Hn," he said noncommittally. After walking another block, he added, "It wouldn't have been a Kami-damned double knockout, that's for sure Hyūga." Hinata smiled tightly, thinking of the only fight of the prelims more embarrassing than hers, and kept walking. She was almost sure the usually quiet and professional Suzume-san hadn't just stifled a snort behind her, but it had sure sounded like it.

When they finally reached the Uchiha compound walls, Sasuke-san finally slowed to a stop, standing and staring at the open gates in front of him and the empty streets beyond. Turning slightly and glancing back at Suzume-san, he made a slight gesture with his head. Suzume-san quickly walked past them and through the gates, leaving Sasuke-san and Hinata alone.

Hinata slowly moved to stand just behind him, waiting quietly with her hands folded in front of her, not looking at him. She wasn't really mad at the bastard right now and was really tired but a Hyūga could do coldly polite all day. It was almost a secondary Bloodline (tertiary if you counted Suzume-san's quiet jokes about typical Hyūga bust size). A quick check of the area showed the Hyūga guards patrolling a ways off and Suzume-san waiting just inside the gates, out of sight around the wall. Sasuke-san sighed deeply, then turned around, leaving Hinata to look at him with the barren streets as the backdrop.

"Hyūga...Hinata-san, you've got a problem," he said, staring off to one side, not looking at her.

"W-what?" Hinata said, surprised.

"Not we, you see. Because of your father, I have gained something I technically need, however bothersome and in my way it is right now. Namely, you."

Hinata stood there, shocked – it was the first time Sasuke-san had mentioned their betrothal contract, forced on them by her father for reasons she still didn't fully understand. She started to fidget, grabbing the front of her coat and holding it closed with numb fingers.

"I don't know what that bastard Hiashi told you, Hinata-san," Sasuke-san growled, teeth clenched, "but I didn't know about this before the day he shoved you out the door and had his little private meeting with me. I didn't ask for this and I assume you didn't either."

She shook her head, not sure if he even saw. He continued, "My teammates all already know this about me, so you should know it as well. I only have two goals, just two, but I'll never give up until they are complete. There is a man I must kill. Not want to kill. I will kill him."

Sasuke-san now looked directly into her eyes, face filled with hate. "I know you have a...a kind heart, so if it matters, he deserves it. He deserves it more than anyone I know, more even that scum Orochimaru. He is stronger than the snake Sannin, more horrible by far, and he will die by my hand."

Hands clenched into fists, Sasuke-san stood quietly for a moment, then looked aside again, not meeting her horrified gaze. Caught in whatever personal hell of memories was torturing him, he raged silently. Almost a minute later he finally relaxed. Now hesitant, he seemed at a loss for words, rubbing his neck briefly with one hand.

"It is the other that...concerns you. Until that bastard Hiashi's announcement, I hadn't really thought about what it would mean." Swallowing in a sudden gulp, he put his hands in his pockets and slouched again.

"The other is...I will restore my clan, the Uchiha." Confused, Hinata scrunched up her forehead and tried to understand. Then she gasped. Sasuke winced, still not looking at her.

"Yes. I had not really...considered what that would mean. I assumed I would complete my other objective first and simply, uhh, worry about the second later. Then you showed up." Hinata was near fatally embarrassed, but also more afraid than she'd ever been. The thoughts she'd been shoving to the back of her mind all through her team's awful patrol mission and Sasuke-san's intensive genjutsu training suddenly returned and she had to face them.

As the wife of a clan head, there was virtually no way she could be an active kunoichi. As the wife of the head of a nearly dead clan, there was absolutely no other job for her but one. Repopulating the clan. She'd be expected to have almost one child a year, essentially until her body gave out. Which, for a fully trained and powerful kunoichi with modern medical support, might not be until late middle-age. There was a reason small clans preferred strong kunoichi brides, so they could be pregnant nine months out of the year, virtually forever.

She wouldn't, she couldn't do that; even if the marriage wasn't for three years still, she'd never agree to that. Wait, as a genin, she was a legal adult. She didn't have to do this, she'd run away first.

Except, she remembered, the Uchiha (through her own father) could call in a breach of contract complaint with the Hyūga (also, sickeningly, her father) and, legal-adult or not, she'd not work another day as a Leaf kunoichi ever again. They would "let her go" from the position and blacklist her for life if the Hyūga could show cause for security concerns – an easy charge to make stick on your own clanswoman. She could flee the Uchiha compound but she couldn't escape her family obligations.

"How can I get out of this?" she thought, "Why didn't I spend some time thinking this through earlier?" Her head spun.

Even in Konoha's relatively liberated society, Fire Country itself being very much the front runner of woman's rights, this was still something clan law covered. If she refused to...accept her fate, or tried to fight her new "job," it would be grounds for an immediate divorce and would be a breach of contract – her clan would be dishonored and she could face strict punishments, both financial and personal. She certainly wouldn't be allowed to be a kunoichi then, and her family had the right under clan law to simply brand her with the cursed seal and throw her into the branch house. Most likely, she'd never see her sister or father again, unless it was a general clan gathering or village parade of some sort.

Her mind went into overdrive and she started to shake. She couldn't technically be (oh god) forced to do anything with the Uchiha like...like that, but the alternatives were very, very bad. They would seal her, she would not work as a ninja again, they would take her sister from her. She couldn't run away from the village – she had only the tiny amount of money she'd gathered from some D and C rank missions, and that certainly wouldn't be enough to keep her going long.

Hinata had been using that as spending money to treat her team to snacks or buy personal equipment with and hadn't been saving very carefully. She could run away now from the Uchiha and, since she was a genin, no one would legally be able to do anything to stop her. But she would stop being a legal adult the second the Hyūga pulled her Leaf genin status. Then she was a minor and they could drag her back with the Konoha police force, if necessary. She would go to the branch house with a brand-new tattoo on her head the same day, guaranteed.

It wouldn't get better after that. Fleeing later, after she became an adult, wouldn't get her out of being sealed – clan law guaranteed that. Hunter-nin would track her down then, if necessary. And the only jobs available in the branch house to a woman with no ninja rank was as a housemaid or manual laborer in a non-sensitive position, and those jobs were still much better than any a 16 year old girl with no additional training could get outside the clan. She would likely be working awful jobs for life, even if she wanted to leave the clan (with a cursed seal on her forehead) after she was an adult in the eyes of the law again.

Sasuke-san was as much as saying that she was his to use to restore his clan, given to him by her own father. She would now be forced to quit her ambition to be a strong kunoichi, either soon or when she was married in three years at 16. At least Cloud had only planned on killing her and surgically removing her eyes – only male clan members could pass on the Bloodline, so holding her captive and raping her over and over for more Byakugan- eyed children (the worst case nightmare she'd considered in her darkest hours) wouldn't have worked. But that was essentially what Sasuke-san and her father had planned for her by forcing this marriage, and this way it would work for them. She'd be pregnant with Sharingan-eyed babies until she died or her body gave out. Sure, she had a choice, but only in how she wanted to lose her dreams.

"I-I...I h-had n-n-not...I d-d-didn't t-think," she started to stammer, sliding away from him a step, shivering uncontrollably. "Y-you are j-just as b-bad as Cloud! Y-you'll s-steal me and t-take what y-you w-want from m-me and you d-don't care!"

It didn't matter the cost, she wouldn't let them have her, she had to run. She'd die first before she'd let them take her away again. She wouldn't let them take her. Her hand shook as it slowly went to her left arm for her tantō; thankful she always wore the full equipment set, even to indoor practice. Her eyes flared to life, the world slipping into total view again. Everyone was still about where they were before, but it looked like Suzume-san was starting to move, perhaps reacting to her outburst.

Sasuke-san's eyes flew open (but didn't activate, yet) and he started violently back from her. "Fuck!" he cursed, almost yelling, quickly holding up his empty hands to her. "No, no, no! Calm down, Hinata-san! I'm not like fucking Cloud! I have no intention of stealing you away against your will, of using you for some, some twisted purpose!"

Hinata's hand froze on the handle of her large knife, muscles tensed to fight or run or die trying. She was breathing heavily and her full vision was pushed out farther than she'd ever had it before, 40 feet maybe. Suzume-san had frozen, just out of line-of-sight (for normal people), her Byakugan also activated. The other guards were starting to respond, their Byakugans activated now.

"Just wait, Hinata-san, please," he said, hands still empty, Sharingan still off. "I don't need a knife at my back from some foolish woman who hates me, someone who can't stand me and is barely putting up with me! Damn it all, I started this backward. Just calm down for a second," he said, not moving. Suzume-san was still frozen, the guards were moving to investigate from the shadows.

"W-what, you mean you, you don't want...an heir as soon as possible?" Hinata demanded, holding her ground but still not relaxing. "You mean to tell me that isn't why I'm becoming your wife?"

"You don't understand," he said more quietly, lowering his clenched fists to his sides and glaring at the ground. "That isn't what I want, not at all. I've been thinking about this for a while now, since your idiot father surprised me. I, I need someone like, like another Mito Uzumaki of legend, wife of the First Hokage – someone who fought by his side and helped defeat a rampaging demon! Like apparently everyone from that idiot Naruto's crazy old dead clan, someone fearless and with insanely huge chakra reserves." He smirked, then faltered again.

"I didn't know...she was related to Naruto-kun?" she said, surprised despite herself.

He nodded. "That's what I figure. It makes sense at least."

He paused and seemed hesitant to continue. "What I need...I need someone like my, like-" he face fell and he made a small sound, something like a cough, just once and quietly, almost instantly getting control again and clearing his face.

Continuing in a cold monotone, face blank, he said, "I need someone like the powerful Jōnin kunoichi, Mikoto Uchiha – master of the sword arts, equal to any of the legendary Seven Swordsmen." Hinata's eyes grew wide as she realized that must have been one of Sasuke's relatives who'd been slaughtered that terrible night, someone he had known, possibly well.

He stopped and took several deep breaths. "Whoever I marry will be someone to stand strong by my side, to help defeat my foes. Someone to restore my clan with me honorably, as an equal, not someone to cower pathetically in my shadow and, and simply produce heirs." He spat out the last word, turning his head, not looking at her still.

"If your father thinks I'll simply quit being a ninja and settle down with you in three years – make a bunch of little Uchiha to show how skilled he is at restoring the poor, once-dead clan – then quietly become his political puppet when I get full leadership at 21, he is stupider than even his recent actions suggest." Sasuke was now looking directly at her, eyes filled with scorn. Hinata frowned at the continuing insults of her father, but stayed silent.

"If you think you have what it takes to be a legendary kunoichi, you are welcome to apply for the job in three years," he said smirking again, doubt clear in his voice. "If not, or if you're simply still as weak as those useless fangirls, I'll just ignore you until I'm 21 and clan head of the Uchiha in my own right and then get a perfectly legal divorce in civilian court.

"With no children, and there would be no children in that scenario, such a legal dissolution would be easy. Then you'll be free to do...whatever. Maybe your clan will have some duties for you, I don't really care. Hiashi Hyūga-sama," he said sarcastically, "won't dare remove me, famous celebrity of the village, from active duty even if I squash his Uchiha breeding program plans. I'll continue to be a shinobi and grow stronger, no matter what."

"What I won't do, Hyūga," he spat the word like a curse, "is demean myself to even touch someone I think less than worthy of the proud position of my wife. I'll no more force you to do something like that than I'd date those annoying fangirls who follow me around. If you want, you can tell that bastard father of yours I said so." He then turned his back to her again and continued through gates, slouching once more with his hands shoved in his pockets.

At some point, Hinata's Byakugan had deactivated, almost without her noticing. She now stood with her fingers on the tantō's handle, completely still and mind blank. That was more words than she thought she'd ever heard him say about himself ever, total. And once again, he'd managed to scare her breathless, reassure her, and call her a worthless weakling, practically in the same sentence and while looking coolly distant

Even with her kind outlook on people, there was only so much abuse she could accept, especially from someone not in her family. It had taken awhile, but Hinata thought she was now genuinely starting to hate Sasuke Uchiha. It was going to be a long eight years.


Sulking in his private study at the Uchiha mansion later that night, Sasuke finally opened the Uchiha clan information packet that prick Hiashi Hyūga had sent him. It was mostly boring: endless lists of farms in Fire Country owing very modest rent to the Uchiha, buildings leased to merchants in the Konoha town proper, and most horrific and sad of all, a fat stack of paper listing the summarized wills of all the Uchiha dead.

Because of the clan's mutuality agreement, all deaths leaving no legal family heir resulted in the property and funds being returned to the clan's general fund for use in furthering clan business. Usually it would be gifted out again to some young couple or as a business loan to a hungry young Uchiha businessperson.

In this case, everyone was dead. Everyone but Sasuke and his hated brother – who was also technically listed as dead here, he noticed. Barely avoiding shredding the paper with his bare hands, he moved on. There was also a copy of the family tree, now virtually ended, except for- he moved on again.

Looking carefully over the copy of Hinata's betrothal agreement, he noted that he had, in fact, remembered the clan law correctly. There were more...severe and binding agreements possible in Hyūga tradition, he was sure, but the Uchiha were very modern in their approach and didn't allow women to become slaves to their husbands, like some nobles and clans even here in Fire Country. This betrothal was a standard Uchiha contract. He briefly smirked at the idea of his mother being a quiet, compliant, perfect little wife like some Hyūga bastard would likely prefer. Like they had tried to make Hinata, he thought – the smirk was wiped away quickly.

What was he going to do with her? He couldn't simply ignore her – she was too valuable an asset in training. He almost had this strange new training genjutsu working, and he could use it even better than the Uchiha had in the past if he could just get her eyes to help!

He could practice endless fireballs, complex strategies, alpha strikes and long-game attrition strategies, then reset his simulated chakra and run the jutsu again without any rest. Well, for 30 minutes at a time at least, based on his current progress. He still couldn't get the time compression working, not that he'd tell Hinata about it until he did.

Should he even be including her in this secret training? It was technically a clan secret, and though she'd technically be in the clan in three years (and for at least 5 more after that) could he actually trust her?

He eventually concluded it likely didn't matter – as he had previously realized it would be useless without the Uchiha eyes. And there were only two pairs out there now. He'd kill the man with the other soon enough. Maybe if he ever found his invincible super-kunoichi his children would one day have Sharingan of their own. Until then, the secret was safe enough.

Despite his rant to Hinata, he didn't really think that would happen. Maybe after killing his brother he'd give up on being a shinobi and lower his standards. A mental image entered his mind of a grinning Sakura making a v-for-victory sign in one hand, the other holding a black-eyed baby with dark hair and pink frosted tips. He shivered uncontrollably. Not that low, he promised himself.

It was late but he wanted to get this done. It wasn't like he was going to get any sleep anytime soon as it was. His office was quiet and cozy, filled with warm-toned wooden furniture, and he felt like he could spend all night here. He almost missed his centrally located apartment where he'd lived until last month – it was right in the middle of everything and he could basically fall out of bed and into the busy city streets – but it didn't have anything like this. He'd always had the option to live in the clan mansion but he'd almost never done it, usually just dropping by on the anniversary of...that night, holding a silent vigil over a picture of his parents. Maybe he should have moved here long ago. Some of the things he'd been finding were incredibly useful.

Sure, that jutsu needed someone with an equal dōjutsu to his to make it work, but it had improved his reaction time, taijutsu forms, and genjutsu use by leaps and bounds. That idiot Naruto would be surprised at how much stronger he was now. No matter how long that loser trained, there was no way he'd have gotten much better. Even training with a legendary shinobi like Jiraiya wouldn't matter for someone that idiotic.

Finally, he turned to some of the last documents in the pile. Knowing he was almost done, he simply scanned over them (something about future clan development plans) and started to put away the entire huge pile in a large desk drawer. Then he stopped, eyes wide, Sharingan suddenly activated and spinning.

He went back several pages, back past the farming expansion plans and average cost per family estimates for household servants, to the page titled, "Clan Head Family Planning." Sounded simple enough, but something had seemed...there it was. An almost empty sort of pseudo-family-tree placed him and (gah, of course) Hinata as the predicted parents of three to twelve Uchiha children, with all possible results of male and female children for the first four kids and how that affected the heirs assignments, notes on other pages with contingency plans for each and how to avoid succession issues.

"A little icky for something involving human beings, but that's clans for you," he thought.

He was missing something about that analysis but he wasn't sure what. Sharingan still spinning, he memorized pages at a time. Then he saw it. He hadn't understood what he was looking at before, but with the Sharingan picking out and comparing details, and with his full attention, it was clear. That was why it was four kids in that other report.

Plans for his family included predicted children, infant survival rates, and gender ratio plots. This page also had several empty boxes next to his name, connected the same way as Hinata's. He didn't have any (loyal or legally) living brothers. It was him they indicated, but what did those boxes mean? Flipping though the summarized paragraphs and into the detailed analysis he saw it, clear as day.

That son of a bitch Hiashi had plans to marry him off all right – with three other possible wives. The thing is, he didn't list them here as exclusive plans, now obsolete because of his marriage to Hinata. They were actually new plans, made since that arrangement with Hinata.

Furrowing his brow, he continued reading. He didn't think Hiashi had meant to include copies of this report with his information packet, but it was here now and his blissful ignorance was at an end. These were clearly not contingency plans but a solid blueprint for his future.

Hiashi intended to have Sasuke marry like the warlords of history, like those barbarian tribes from which the damned Hyūga clan originally spawned. None of the others were finalized, like Hinata, but his blood ran cold at some of the names. Essentially all of the kunoichi around his age: Ino, Tenten, Sakura, even...who was Temari? That Sand kunoichi from the Exams? Also some other girls from rich merchant families and the like, those seemingly included as backups. But it was clear what it all meant and, by clan law, it wasn't even illegal.

Because of Hiashi, Sasuke was now scheduled to marry up to four wives, including Hinata Hyūga, by the time he was 21.