I want to start off this note by apologizing to those who are following this story for updating this story so late. But I have excuses for that.

First, I didn't get the govt job that I mentioned few chapters ago. I passed the MCQ and written portion but I failed on practical test. So I had to sulk in the corner.

Second, Ramadan. Anyone who knows about it can guess how tired some can get after a whole day of fasting.

And finally, I got a promotion in my current job from Data Entry Operator to Data Entry Supervisor just after Eid. It took me few days get used to new responsibilities. But I am managing.

Again I am sorry because I had to half this chapter but I think I have been absent from duty to you guys enough. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

OxoxO

Being a prankster, Naruto knew Hidden Leaf's underground sewerage tunnel like the back of his hand. In his venture into sewerage tunnels, he found that there was a hole in a tunnel's wall that sometime emptied fresh water into the tunnel. In his childish mind, he thought that it was there to make human waste flow faster. But surely Hidden Leaf's authority wouldn't be so stupid to waste water to make shit flow better. My conclusion was, they didn't. So the question that naturally came to mind was who did and why. Then again it was just a hole in sewerage tunnel so it wasn't important for me to keep in the forefront of my mind.

Then a watch-rat got drenched in water coming out of it and surprisingly the water was warm. So he observed the hole for a whole day. His observation let me know that hot water flowed through that hole in every 3 hours which would be unusual without a diligent attendant or an automated system. But there wasn't any hot spring bath in a mile radius. If the water came from outside of that range then surely it would've cooled down before getting to the hole. This called for looking into.

So I wasn't surprised when a clone of mine found an underground lab at the other end of the narrower side tunnel. Now you might want to ask what was so much water was used here for. The answer is, "To light up the place."

A reservoir with capacity of approximately 10,000 liters was built there. A pipe filled it up with water from river in about half a kilometer distance. Water discharge and Intake were controlled with help of ingenious system that utilized hollow metal cylinders, pipe, switch and counterweights.

Since the water flowed into the reservoir continuously, something had to be done with the excess electricity. That's where a secondary reservoir came in. water flowed into it after turning the turbine. Several immersion water heater rod was hung from ceiling above. They were turned on and off same way as primary reservoir's discharge valve. Though there was another switch that was probably turned off while the owner was working here and may be he turned it on when he felt like taking a hot bath.

I was awed by all of this. Sure there were several flaws in this system but it would be insulting to the guy who built this place to not acknowledge him as a genius. It was a miracle that this system was still functional without regular maintenance.

At first I thought I had found one of Orochimaru's lab where he experimented on human. I had to throw away several body parts, mostly bones, away. This lab was used for human experimentation for sure but it didn't belong to Orochimaru.

From the notes I found here, a ninja named Hiruko built this place during 2nd Great Ninja War. Although he wasn't searching for immortality like Orochimaru, his objective no less selfish. He used people as Guinee pig for his research on incorporating bloodline limit into his own body.

It's a shame that all the samples he collected in his hay day was rotten and contaminated long before I found this place. Of course I wouldn't use his method. That relied too much on body modification and it gave off the feeling of Shou Tucker's human transmutation from Fullmetal Alchemist. I liked my current body as it was, thank you very much. But I kept his notes in a storage seal. Who knows when they might be of use to me?

Dates on those notes indicated that they were more than a decade old. I thought Hiruko may have died during a war. But after some digging, I found out that Hiruko actually chased out of the Leaf years before Orochimaru was.

As this lab was off-the-grid, both water and electricity wise, no utility line led to it. Only thing the previous owner would have needed to bring here would be lab equipment and food. It was spacious, about 40 meters in length, 25 meters in width and there were 3 layers in this underground lab. Perfect place to make a hideout.

"Ugh, where am I?" Sasuke stirred up from his chloroform induced sleep. He had to. Half a minute ago I placed a mug that I left lemon water in for two days couple of inches away from his nose. Anyone who ever forgot to clean lemon water bottle would know how badly it stinks if you don't clean that bottle with hot, black coffee. You can torture people with it. That's how bad it gets.

"More than seven feet under." Sasuke looked at me from his position.

Tonight, after we enjoyed the festival, I told Sasuke to follow me. I told him it was time I would tell him all I could about his clan's massacre. So he followed me without a question. I kept my sensory jutsu on to scan our vicinity for any tail. Luckily there weren't any. But for extra caution, I lead Sasuke through a narrow, dark alley where I made few pairs of shadow clones to go anywhere they felt like. Leaving a pair behind us, we left the alley. Then I took Sasuke to another alley where there was a manhole cover. There I unsealed 2 gas masks out from my storage seal. I placed one over my face and gave him the other one. Moment after he put his mask on, he passed out from the chloroform I put inside it.

I wasn't going to carry him all the way. So I made another shadow clone who warged into him. Entrance to this place wasn't very far from there.

"Why am I inside this thing? Is this some kind of joke you are trying to pull?"

After getting in, 'Sasuke' went inside an iron cage I placed inside the primary reservoir few days ago for this moment. Right now the reservoir was empty and dry. But that could be changed by opening a valve.

"Do you see any camera in my hands? If I really wanted to pull a joke, then you would've been model for a photoshoot in less clothes. No I brought you here for serious reason. As for why you are in a cage, well I don't want you to run off before I tell you the whole thing. I know you have tunnel vision when it comes to revenge."

Sasuke just narrowed his eyes at my reply. "Who killed my clan if it wasn't Itachi?"

"What good is it going to do to you knowing all that now?"

"What!?"

"You are surprised as expected. Do you want to know why you are inside that cage?" Smoldering glare was the only response I got from him. Seeing as he isn't going to give any vocal reply, I continued. "There is a jounin in our village named Kakashi Hatake. In bingo book, his alias is Kakashi of the Sharingan. His case shows that implanted sharingan helps a ninja tremendously. But after going through his medical records, I found out that his sharingan is perpetually active which is why he needs to keep his sharingan covered outside of any serious battle. Even using one implanted sharingan drains his chakra so much that he needs a week long bed rest to recover. In my opinion; it's more hassle than it is worth. But I have a theory. Kakashi's sharingan drains him so much because it was implanted after it was activated. But what would happen if someone implants a potential sharingan eye before it is activated? Of course, there is no telling if the sharingan would ever activate or not. After all, not all the Uchihas had their precious eyes. But if it activates there is a chance a non-Uchiha could use his sharingan like a real Uchiha."

"You…." Sasuke was shaking at my implication like any sane person would. But this was a minor concern. I had to do what I needed to do. "You did all this for my eyes!"

"Sasuke, you know what this place is?" The abrupt change in topic made Sasuke pause. May be he was thinking why I would ask something like this out of the blue. "Years ago this place belonged a scientist ninja. He used this place to run experiments on human test subjects. He was trying to find a way to incorporate bloodline traits from other people in his own body. Few weeks back when I found this lab, I found his notes about his methods and progress. Sure he wasn't successful in his research but it was still fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn't find any of his biological samples intact to continue from where he left off. And unlike his time, there isn't any war going on. So I can't just go out and find someone with bloodline. Since I am not going to be a ninja until few more years, I was about to put my project to become a ninja with a strong bloodline limit in back burner. But then I remembered, I have someone who is going to do as I said for few more days. Someone who has a bloodline limit to boot."

"You are not going to kill me without a fight!"

"Who said I am going to fight you? You will have to fight an element of nature."

"Element of nature?"

"Water." My clone standing by the valve opened it on his cue and water from the river started to slowly fill up the reservoir. "Your clan was famous for expertise in fire style jutsu, weren't they? Do you know water is stronger than fire on equal power? Just so you know, if you plan on evaporating water, there are more water where they are coming from. It will take about ten minutes before water level rises to the top of the cage and spitting fire will only make you drain you of chakra and you will get boiled in water you warmed."

"You think people of this village will leave you be when they find out you killed me?" Each sentence Sasuke said contained more venom than the one before. He was seething. Shaking with anger.

"Do you still think I am an idiot who craves people's attention? I will admit, I won't be the sharpest kunai in a box but I am not so naïve to think I will get away with killing you. I had time to plan to cover my track. There is no fingerprint on your person; I have been keeping my chakra suppressed for about two hours and any smell lingering on you will wash up after your bath. They won't find any evidence of me being in your personal zone at the moment of your death. It's about six in the morning. When I send the signal in few minutes, one of the clones that took your place will make his way to river and he will make sure people will see him. Meanwhile, I will get your body out of the cage and bring it to river a bit downstream. The clone will dispel after his jump and your body will float up few minutes later. Your body will be taken to the hospital for post mortem. All they will find out that you drowned yourself in the river. Connecting this with whole sale murder of your clan, they will conclude that you committed suicide because you couldn't handle the loss and loneliness any more. Before they bury your body, I will arrange accident of some sort for me that will warrant an eye transplant. I checked the eye bank registry. They have very few eyes as it is and all of them are already lined up for transplant. You can guess what they will do at the situation." I showed him a picture I drew while he was sleeping, teenage Naruto with Shouto's burn mark and blue-black heterochromia eyes. "Do you think I will look cooler with burn mark? I think this look will be a lady killer." That did it.

"How dare you think you will get away with stealing my eyes! I am an Uchiha! They won't pull out my eyes just to replace yours!"

"So you believe they wouldn't desecrate your body for an idiot like me? You will be sorely disappointed to know that as military assets, I am more important for this village than you are. No matter how respected your clan was, you won't be any good if you are dead. I know you are angry but it is the truth. However, out of gratitude to you for your eye, I think it's only fair if you get something in return. Since your sacrifice going to give me a huge boost, I will kill the person who pulled the string and made Itachi kill your clan like a puppet."

"Who? Who was it!?"

"What's use to know his name now?"

"Tell me his name, damnit!"

"You barely have five minutes to live. Why don't you accept the fact that I will avenge your clan for you? Isn't that reassuring enough? Just say your prayer and be happy that you are going to finally meet your parents in after life where death has no power. You will have your family by your side for all eternity."

A drowning man catches at straw. This proverb never felt so true when Sasuke started shooting fire ball at me at first. A quick replacement jutsu moved me out of line of fire. This happened few more times before Sasuke started to make bigger fire ball to shoot at the cage's bars to melt them. He knew it was useless but he did it anyway. When water rose up to his chest, he started pulling the bars. In seconds water rose higher and he couldn't breathe in anymore for fireball jutsu. All he could do was glaring. And he was glaring at me with intense hate. So intense that it turned his black eyes into red.

Sasuke had awakened his sharingan and my objective had been accomplished.

With a quick body flicker, I went at top of the cage and grabbed the back of his head with my right hand. He had already spent most of his reserve with his jutsus. Absorbing the final dreg didn't even take 10 seconds.

"You should've killed the Uchiha. He is going to cause trouble for you in the future."

'May be he is. But I am willing to take the chance.'

OxoxO

Note: If anyone interested to be my beta please let me know.