Yo everyone! Reviews are very, very much appreciated, and I'd be grateful for some more. Thanks as always to greenteamoose. Pretty much everything from here on out has a bigger point to the story. Because this is the start of the ending, and there will be about seven more chapters left or less.

Me: Garrr, just disclaim.

Hidan: Why the hell do I have to disclaim?

Me: Because you're a bastard… and you are Akatsuki. Even if you never show up in this story.

Hidan: …Flipping bitch. TheContheDistance doesn't fucking own Naruto.

Me: Remind me to cut off your head.

"Argh!"

Emiko compressed as much chakra as she could into her hand and slammed it against a tree trunk. The bark broke off and the underlying wood cracked, flying off into random directions. Not even completely destroying the tree was making Emiko aggravated, not that she was too chipper to start with.

"Kuso."

She loaded her fist again with chakra and tried to pack together even more than before. This time the impact seemed to cause a little more damage, but not enough to fell the tree. She didn't have enough chakra or strength to do that, and as it was, she had been attacking anything in her vicinity for a good hour.

"Is it possible that you're getting better at chakra control?"

Emiko sighed dejectedly. Of course Isamu was there, he was always there. Nani? Is he following me? She slumped against the tree trunk and looked up at her sensei. She had spent most of her chakra so she was utterly drained, both physically and emotionally. She sighed again and looked down at the ground.

Isamu frowned; it was in the nature of ninja never to show one's true feelings, especially if it was considered vital to the mission. Regardless of this, Isamu never liked to deceive people when it came to his emotions. Subsequently he was worried about his student and he wanted to make her feel better, in his own way.

"Oi, it's almost time for dinner. How about we get some dumplings, ne?"

"I already had some with Anko."

"That crazy Tokubetsu Jounin? Oh well, we can get ramen instead."

Emiko nodded half-heartedly, she was in no mood to put up with her sensei but there was no point in starving herself if she was hungry. Besides, didn't Temari always say that eating made her feel better when she was in a really bad state? It didn't matter, being annoyed with Isamu would make her forget about Sakura's stupidity. After all, her patience could only be tested so far. And that was a certainty.

The two shinobi calmly gulped down their ramen, both of them trying to ignore the sudden swell of shinobi from the Chuunin Exams and spectators from nearby countries. The older division of the visitors were prone to getting tremendously drunk and starting brawls, which was not in the least bit pleasant. This in itself was not so strange, as it happened wherever and whenever the Chuunin Exams occurred, what was peculiar was that the whole village seemed to be in an uproar, everyone bustling to and fro as if they were on some secret mission. And even the most run down areas of Konoha started to seem cleaner and more hospitable than usual.

Isamu dodged the sake bottle that threatened to split his skull. He raised his own sake cup in a sardonic toast to the bar across the street from Ichiraku's. Tonight was no different in the tourists' drunken tirades. Kami knows that they were going to be like this until the final exam, and then some.

Emiko turned around as she heard a man start intimidating another in an alcohol-induced rant. He must have been the one to throw that bottle. Another burly man wearing a Grass hitai-ate calmly walked up to him and punched him in the face. The drunk crashed into a table and skidded onto the floor, yelling curses and anything that came to mind. Once down he stopped howling and fell silent with his face on the floor. The Grass ninja kicked his side and a loud snore erupted from the unconscious body on the ground.

Isamu chuckled into his drink and Emiko snorted. Baka. She turned away from the bar and rested her cheek in her palm. Her fingers twitched anxiously and she abruptly remembered the book from the library. The volume that she shouldn't read, that she wasn't allowed to read, but she didn't understand why. The Hyuuga clan's history was allowed to be researched, and she knew that Isamu saw the Hyuuga Clan book even if she did try to hide it from him. But he didn't forbid her to read it; it was only the history of Konoha that was prohibited.

Simply the fact the volume had been forbidden to be read, and the fact that she believed it was chiefly the chapter about the Uchiha Clan had been the cause; a curiosity about that very clan arose. And someone else must have known something about that clan if they were going to mark all those pages. Weren't the Uchiha feared? Granted they didn't have the special form of Taijutsu she wanted to learn, but she didn't understand quite a lot of things about said clan. Sakura told her a lot about the last Uchiha without telling her much about him. She spoke about how great he was and how he was so cool, but never about his past or why he left Konoha.

"What...," Emiko trailed off, she didn't know how to ask for what she wanted, "What do you know about the Uchiha Clan?"

Isamu's cup made an unpleasant clank as he set down the sake cup more violently than he meant. He watched the ripples in the sake somberly; he didn't want to answer. It was hard to think about and he had gone to the memorial only a couple of days ago. He didn't get why she wanted to know either. Although Isamu was one to beat around the bush, he didn't like asking questions. He liked answering them.

"Uchiha… ne?" he said quietly, taking a quick gulp from his cup and signaling for another bottle.

"When I was your age or a little younger, I was in a three-man cell just like all the other kids who wanted to be ninjas in the academy. In every team there is two boys and a girl with a Jounin to teach them. There are exceptions but they don't occur very often. In my group, Team 11, was Yamanaka Koto. She was the best of all three of us, easily surpassing me in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. It was surprising that she was one of the best rookies that year, especially because of her attitude towards fighting…

"And then there was Toshiru, of the great and powerful Uchiha Clan. He was strong too, but in a time when there were prodigies in the clan such as Uchiha Shisui and," Isamu's voice became bitter, "Uchiha Itachi, he didn't stand out. Being an Uchiha put a lot of pressure on him, you were supposed to be like every other ninja from that clan: cold, powerful, and alone. You were supposed to cut yourself off from the rest of the village. It didn't help that the compound was separated from the village, and the Uchiha weren't very fond of visitors either."

Isamu gulped down the remainder of the sake from his cup and started to work on the new bottle waiting for him. Emiko waited somewhat impatiently, if he was going to get drunk by the end of his speech she wasn't going to take him home. She was going to leave him passed out on the stool. The only reason she was even dealing with him was for the information, now that she was curious about this so-called "great and powerful" clan, she was going to hear everything he was going to say about it.

"Well, Toshiru certainly wasn't like the rest of those assholes. He was quiet, aa, but he cared about his teammates. He was always there for either of us when we needed it. The only reason I became a Chuunin was because of his encouragement. And in the Exams, we made it until the final one only because of him, and he was the only one of all the rookies to make it to Chuunin that year. It was in the Chuunin Exams he acquired the Sharingan," Emiko shifted slightly in her seat, paying closer attention to what he was saying.

"It is said that Uchiha can only claim their kekkai-genkai when they are in a battle or when they are under severe pressure. The Sharingan in its first stage has one tomoe, and eventually grows to have three tomoe. Each comma stands for each type of technique that can be read: Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, Taijutsu. Toshiru also told me of this; the Sharingan can disarm any Genjutsu cast upon its user, as well as see the movement and flow of any person's chakra. I even heard that they can control the flow of chakra with their eyes alone."

"How is that possible?" Emiko frowned. Isamu merely shrugged and waved it off.

"Centuries of breeding, hostile rules and a militaristic view of their own family, I suppose. I never understood the ties they had to their families, and why some many of them would forsake friendship in return for pride. They were forced to be brought up thinking that power was everything and that emotions were only a hindrance. After all, this is the clan that founded the Konoha Military Police Corps.

"… I suppose that's what led Uchiha Itachi to slaughter his entire clan, with the exception of his little brother. I don't think anyone knows the exact reason why he did it. What's the real reason to kill anyone for that matter? But Uchiha Itachi managed to kill his own parents as well as all of his extended family. He even murdered Uchiha Shisui.

"Have you heard of that kid, Sasuke-kun?" Isamu asked curiously.

Emiko shifted again in her seat to look at him in the eye.

"Aa." More than you know. I know his personality, favorite things to do, all his nicknames for Naruto, and now, why he left Konoha. I never got the details from Sakura. I never knew what his clan was like or that it was his very own brother that massacred their clan.

"Never met him myself," Isamu said, smiling faintly. Except once. "But he was the only Uchiha left after the massacre. Your own brother killing everyone you know… it's unimaginable to understand what he went through." Koto and I, we only had a small fraction of it, and it still hurts.

Emiko adverted her gaze to the floor. He was left alone, ne? But he had a choice, didn't he? He choose, and everyone who cared about him was forced to watch.