Chapter 8: Making Plans

The ginger boy hummed happily as he counted the boxes, touching his fingertip to the top of each stack before nodding and writing it down. Shizune stayed near, watching him attentively, a tiny smile playing on her lips.

Once he got done with the boxes, he turned to her, a bright smile in place. "So! I'm done!"

Shizune chuckled, nodding and peering over his shoulder at the paper. "So you are. Let's see…" Her eyes narrowed at it, her mouth moving almost imperceptibly as she read along. "Hm," she finally said, leaning back, "looks like we used more than we expected. Well done, Hideki. That's about the length of your time on probation here."

"What is it gonna be like here?" He asked, bearing a curious frown. He dropped his arm, letting the paper and clipboard rest against his thigh. "I've heard a lot about the rebels, but… I don't exactly know what to expect."

"Ah, yes." The woman nodded and beckoned with one hand, and at once he began to follow her.

The two left the storage area and went back to the communal firepit. Sitting down on a log, Shizune turned her body to face the boy and smiled.

"To start, once your probation ends, you'll have to pick a field to work in." She began. "Naturally, since you're not yet sixteen, there isn't a lot you can do. For now, I believe you'll be in medical training. Once you actually turn sixteen, you can choose whether you want to continue medical or to go to another work area, such as a field agent whenever we stop in on towns of sympathizers."

"Cool, like helping people with food and stuff?" He asked excitedly.

"Sort of," she chuckled. "For instance, in case we ever came to an area devastated by thieves or, Kami-sama forbid, our allies raided by the capital, field agents would mostly be sent to help them clean up and rebuild." She paused, looking over his exposed arms. "I'm certain that you've had some experience in that?"

"I dunno, my dad usually had me helping him in the garden." Hideki shrugged his shoulders loosely, rubbing his bicep a bit sheepishly. "We didn't really… do anything 'big', I guess."

"That's fine, that's fine. I'm certain we could use your talents in caring for crops well, in case we need to settle somewhere for an extended period." Shizune nodded appreciatively. "Now, as for names, I'm certain you've heard names like 'Ayame' and 'Himawari' thrown around here and there."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. How come they call you Camellia-san, but you have a different name?"

"It's, well, an awfully long story." Shizune took a breath. "To summarize, we go by code names here purely for our own safety. If one of us gets captured, unless they have past history with Konoha they won't know who the person is."

Hideki nodded solemnly. "Oh, I get it… so like, if Sumire-san got captured…"

"Unless they knew what her real name was, there would be less danger to the organization." Shizune finished, folding her hands in her lap.

"Okay! That makes sense." The smile on his face was bright, and it brought mirth to her own heart. As he was about to open his mouth to speak again, the two were interrupted by Shinji walking up to them.

"Sorry for interrupting, but you're needed by Ayame-sama." He spoke directly to Shizune, his visible jade eye cool and collected.

Immediately, her face changed, and she nodded firmly to him, getting up from the log. She turned to the boy with an apologetic smile, "We'll have to continue this discussion later."

"I got it, miss Camellia!" He seemed to understand, bidding her goodbye. "I'll see you later."

She merely quirked the side of her mouth up and turned, striding off with purpose. The two were left there, and Shinji awkwardly sat down near the boy, staring blankly at the ground.

"Um, hi." Hideki's voice made him look up into his curious gray eyes. His hand was extended. "May I ask a question, sir?"

"Ask away, kid." Shinji replied, giving his hand a reluctant shake.

"How did you lose your eye?"

Shinji stiffened, and when the boy pulled back in alarm, he shook his head. "Don't get excited, you just caught me off-guard is all. I don't really care about this ol' thing anymore; it's what I get for serving the king."

"The king did that to you?" The teenager's voice was breathy and confused, eyes wide in concern.

"He threw a knife at me," he said casually with a shrug, as if discussing the weather. His shoulders were tense still. "I think I must have disobeyed him in some way or another - it was so long ago that I don't quite remember."

Hesitantly, Hideki reached out, as if he were to touch the wrapping. But then he pulled back, his nose wrinkling as if smelling something sour. "That's… horrible. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, it's in the past." Shinji shrugged again, leaning back against the log. "I have lots of scars from my time in the palace. Got a real long one across my chest from the time I was thrown in the dungeon for planning escape."

Hideki's eyes were wide, his mouth parted in shock. Shinji felt confusion wash over him, and he raised his eyebrows at the boy. "You look as if you've never seen something like this before. How did you get into Mimei if you can't imagine someone being hurt like that?"

"W- well, I just-" the ginger boy licked his lips and shook his head, "-I lost my parents, and I don't have any close relatives, so I just thought that… well, that I could help someone."

"By joining a rebel organization." He flatly replied.

Hideki drooped, his eyes downcast to the ground in shame. "... yeah, I didn't really think about it," he admitted.

The man shook his head with a quiet sigh. "Well, what about your parents?"

"... my dad…" he hesitated, and when Shinji looked over, he could faintly see the boy's eyes misting up. "Oh, great."

"Look, if it's too painful, you don't have to tell me." He begrudgingly scooted closer to the boy, gingerly resting a hand on his damp back. "I get it, we all have family troubles here. I don't even really have a family of my own anymore."

Hideki slowly looked up, big slate eyes wide and teary. He wiped the moisture from them, amazed. "You too?"

"Is that really so hard to believe?" The green-haired man chuckled. "Believe me, kid, you aren't alone in the orphan aspect. Hell, even Aika is orphaned."

The teenager's cheeks warmed a touch when Shinji gave him a half-smile.

"I… I want to tell you," Hideki wiped his eye again, hardening his expression. "I feel like, like it'll make some of the hurt finally go away."

"Well then by all means." Shinji shrugged his shoulders loosely. "Hit me."

"Last year, maybe around like September, I think, uh, my dad started to get sick. Like, really sick. We didn't know what it was, because we didn't really, like, have the best medical care. Uh, our village is really small, so… y'know." He sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "He seemed like he was getting better for a while, but in December, he died. I don't really remember what it was, but like, it was a heart problem I think. My mom was… she was really torn up over it."

Shinji nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"We… we spent Christmas alone that year," the ginger boy's breathing hitched, and he blinked rapidly. His voice cracked on the next part, "A few months later, on Dad's birthday, my mom… my mom killed herself."

Shinji found himself sucking in a breath, sympathy welling up in his chest. His hand moved to the boy's shoulder, and he squeezed it gently.

"I was the one who found her. She- she-" Hideki let out a sob, wiping his eyes furiously. "I- I'm sorry, this is embarrassing, I'm sorry."

"If it helps to talk it out, I'm not judging you." The man replied quietly, squeezing again. "You had to witness such an awful sight… I'm sorry."

"No, it's- it's nothing, I-" he hiccupped, swallowing past the lump in his throat. "I just- I wasn't ready for… y'know? And, and she left a note telling me that… that it wasn't my fault, but I feel like- y'know?"

He silently nodded, trying his best to ignore the teenager's shuddering back.

"If- if I'd been better," he muttered, hanging his head so that Shinji couldn't see the tears fall, "if I'd been a better kid, if I hadn't been so… so selfish, then maybe my mom would still be here."

"Stop."

His sharp voice made the boy flinch, looking up with wide, hurt eyes.

Shinji let out a deep sigh. "Look. Kid. Hideki. You've gotta stop that."

"I- I'm sorry, I know it's a bad topic-"

"No, that's not what I'm talking about." He pointed his finger at the boy, inches away from his nose. "You've gotta stop blaming yourself for what happened."

When he looked like he was ready to retort, Shinji poked his nose. It worked to keep him silent a little bit longer, and his eyes briefly crossed to try and see the fingertip.

"I'm gonna be blunt here. Your dad's passing was an awful thing to happen, yes. Your mom and you made it through that winter together, right?" A nod. "Your parents really loved each other, right?" Another nod. "Your mom committing suicide… there's nothing you could have done to prevent that."

Hideki looked even more hurt, and he opened his mouth to protest.

Shinji just held up his finger. "No, kid, listen to me. Losing a spouse is pretty damn hard to go through. You lost a father, yes, but your mother lost her other half. She lost the one she vowed to stand beside through thick and thin. You lost a father, she lost her light. And yes, it's not good for someone so young to go without their father. You're, what, thirteen, fourteen?"

"F-fifteen, sir."

"Fifteen. You're almost a grown man. You can fend for yourself, get a job, earn yourself a living. What did your mother do?"

"W-well, in our village, usually the women stay home and garden?" Hideki stuttered, scratching his neck. "But my mom just couldn't grow plants, so she left that part to Dad and I while she sold handmade blankets."

"Lucrative, but not lucrative enough." His voice took a harsher tone. "Think about it from a parent's perspective. You've just lost your husband, one of your only sources of income in a place where being a single woman spells disaster for your house. Right?"

Hideki nodded, wiping his eye.

"Couple that with a teenage kid and this shitty economy, and it's no wonder she cracked." Shinji continued, narrowing his eyes. "She probably figured that life would get so hard that she wouldn't be able to bear it any longer if she stayed. It had nothing to do with how good or bad of a kid you were; you're not thinking about the attitude of the family members, you're thinking of survival. She gave you a note, saying you didn't do anything wrong. Right?"

"Y- yeah, she said she just couldn't take it anymore and she wanted to be with Dad."

"See, that, right there. Despair is a sticky bastard. Latches onto whatever it can find. I doubt that she would have lasted much longer if she hadn't killed herself then. It's likely that she would've picked the next moment that felt right. You were out of the house, so she didn't have to worry about you witnessing her do it. She likely thought you wouldn't even find her in time, right?"

"W- well…" Hideki sniffled, eyebrows dipping into a frown of contemplation. "... well, I guess that day I was supposed to be spending the weekend at our elderly neighbor's to help her with moving stuff. A- and we have a customer who comes by every Saturday to buy blankets from Mom, so..."

"So you wouldn't find her body." He flatly replied.

"I guess…?"

"So she wouldn't have to worry about you walking in on her, you'd only get the note." Shinji nodded matter-of-factly. "See, if I was gonna kill myself, I'd have done the same thing. Wait for the person I care about to leave, then do it and leave a note for them to find later. What did the note say, by the way?"

Hideki sniffled again, trying to think. "Well… well I guess the gist of it was that she was sorry she had to leave me, and that she hoped I could be better than her. She wanted me to stay with our neighbor, but she died from pneumonia a little bit after."

"Damn, I'm sorry, kid." The man heaved another sigh. "Look, my point is, don't beat yourself up just because someone wanted to enter the pearly gates early. That was their decision, not yours. She weighed all of her options and decided that ascending was the best one. Your mom seems like she loved you to Hell and back, and if what you've told me is correct, then she tried everything she could to make sure you wouldn't suffer the same fate that she did."

"I just… I just wish she could be here, at least…" his bottom lip wobbled, and he looked close to tears again.

"We all wish our loved ones could be here at times. I still wish I could see my dear momma again, even though that just isn't possible." Shinji shrugged his shoulders. "But don't let her actions pave the way for your future. She's in that better place now, with your dad, and they're watching over you from that better place, wishing you the best possible path. Don't fall to despair like she did, kid. You've got greater things ahead, things that'll make everything worth it."

"It's just… really hard sometimes, y'know?" Hideki's eyes watered. "I wish I could've hugged her tighter one last time… I wish I could tell her I love her, and I wish I could hear her voice."

"Believe me, I know." Shinji squeezed his shoulder again. "You'll see her again someday. And when you do, you'll be able to tell her all about the stuff you did while you missed her. Life's just a trip, kid. At the end of the adventure, you'll be able to go back home to your family and catch up on all the stuff you missed."

"Thanks for not making fun of me for… for crying," Hideki chortled weakly, sniffling. "I'm so lame… I just haven't really been able to process it for, for a while."

"You're in Mimei now, kid. This is your new family." He simply gave him a half-smile, shaking his head. "But the million-yen question: Do you feel better?"

"I… I kinda do, yeah." He gave the older man a smile, his red face hiding his freckles somewhat. "Thank you, sir."

"Like I said, life's just a trip." Shinji shrugged. "The people you meet along the way are passersby on their own journeys. What's the point of even meeting people if we don't help each other along the way?"

He patted the boy's shoulder and stood from the log. He extended a hand to help him up. "C'mon, I know you're hungry. You're a growing boy, you need some meat on those bones."

On cue, the boy's stomach growled, and he blushed deeper. Shinji chuckled, giving him a crooked smile. "Let's go see what we can find, ey?"

"T- twenty-five dead," Tsunade repeated numbly. "Among the dead are the entirety of Troop Nine, and a few of Troop Twelve."

"That's the last report we were given, correct." Konan nodded in confirmation, a sympathetic frown on her face.

Tsunade took a ragged breath, Sumire giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

"This news is troubling, to say the least." Pein gave her a sharp glance.

"I'll say!" She barked a laugh, but she wasn't feeling funny. "This- this is nothing more than a one-sided massacre! They're picking our forces off like flies!"

Hinoki, who had been eerily quiet until this point, spoke up then. "Who, may I ask, orchestrated the attack?"

"You needn't worry. I'm certain that our members will exact swift justice against the guilty party." Konan soothed. "Already, Sasori and Deidara have pinned the exact platoon of soldiers that have carried out the attack. The bad news… Copycat Kakashi is among them."

She nodded quietly, clenching her fists. The slight narrowing of her eyes was the only outward change in her expression.

"Well, isn't that all the better!" Tsunade's sarcastic voice made Sumire give her a disapproving glare. "It's good that we've just gotten reinforcements, but twenty-five lives at once… they're getting better at sniffing us out, and I don't like it a bit."

"As I said, you need not worry." The blue-haired woman rose a hand in a placating gesture. "We will nip this problem in the bud."

"Indeed, we're close to gaining more information at this moment." Pein agreed. "Our… informant has been very useful in letting us know exactly where their comrades are."

"Good. Alert us immediately as soon as you have confirmation." Tsunade stiffly waved. "You are dismissed. Good luck."

Both of them bowed politely before turning and walking back into the trees, disappearing into the shadows.

As soon as they were gone, Tsunade turned to a tree and slammed her fist into the trunk. Upon impact, the wood splintered and cracked under the force and the trunk exploded, making the top of the tree fly off into the air.

The three women were quiet until the tree crashed to the ground a ways away. Sumire turned to the older blonde with a flat, disapproving face.

"That was a bad move," she commented, appraising the stump with narrowed eyes. "You should have used some restraint."

"I was using restraint," Tsunade replied hotly, gritting her teeth. "And how can I remain calm when- when- when I willfully sent our men out there to get slaughtered like animals?!"

"Don't let your rage consume you now," Shizune soothed, placing her hands on Tsunade's shoulders. "This isn't your fault. We didn't know."

"To hell with that! We knew they were in the general area!" Tsunade barked, clenching her fists tightly before turning to another tree. "My order led them to die… how can I just overlook that? How can I sleep tonight knowing that because of me, my men are dead? Their blood is on my hands!"

"Their blood is on our hands," Hinoki corrected quietly, brown eyes flickering up to hers. "Remember, we all agreed to send them to that location to spy on the platoon. Don't shoulder the blame alone."

"Yeah, you'll get wrinkles." Sumire agreed.

Tsunade gave her an exhausted glare. "Not helping."

"Just saying." The pinkette shrugged.

The blonde just rolled her eyes, her heaving shoulders drooping. She grit her teeth again, raising her fist to weakly punch another tree trunk. Her knuckles were red and irritated at the impact, and when she pulled it away, she inspected her trembling knuckles and shook her head.

Shizune glanced up at the sky, her lips pressing into a line. "We'll need to start moving again," she observed. "How about Morino?"

Sumire's eyes were downcast to the grass, and Hinoki chewed on her bottom lip in thought.

"Let's do it," Tsunade finally agreed, glancing between the two women before heaving a sigh. "Perhaps Akihiko will need some reinforcements…"

The door opened and shut silently, though the shadowed figure hunched over the desk kept writing as if they'd heard nothing.

"You've summoned me?" Fugaku's voice was quiet as he stood before the desk.

The figure paused in their work before putting the brush down and rising to their full height, looking down upon the king.

"Yes, I have," their gravelly voice echoed in the sparsely-decorated space. "It's come to my attention that the village of Morino has been sympathetic for the rebels. I have intercepted communication between the two parties that gives me adequate cause to be alarmed."

Fugaku nodded firmly. "What do you suggest we do? Tax them, penalize them…?"

The person flashed a malevolent smile. "Destroy them."

The king choked on his own saliva for a moment. Coughing into his fist, he tentatively replied, "I- I don't follow…?"

"Unless you've spontaneously gone deaf, I believe you heard what I said." They retorted, folding their arms across their broad chest. "They're too large a liability to be allowed to continue operations."

They sat back down at the desk, continuing their writing. "I want them destroyed by the end of this week. Understood?"

Forcing down his emotions, Fugaku bowed at the waist before leaving the room.

His trek down the stairs and through the castle to his chambers was riddled with worry. He hardly said a word to the two guards who saluted him as he entered his personal chambers.

At the sound of the door shutting, Mikoto looked up with a gentle smile, but it faded when she took in her husband's worried expression. She stood from the sofa, arms spread. "What's wrong?"

Fugaku felt sick. Utterly sick. He could hardly look her in the eye as he welcomed her embrace, tucking his face into her shoulder as he let out a deep sigh.

Mikoto pet his hair and frowned, closing her eyes.

Neither said a word for several moments, just focusing on breathing.

Heartbeats. He could hear her heartbeat. She was alive, warm and here. He wasn't going to touch her… for now.

They'd been through so much together. More than 30 years of marriage, two children (one gone, one remaining), and a healthy, thriving kingdom. They built it together. Fugaku didn't know what he would do without Mikoto at his side.

And yet… in just ten years, everything had begun to change too fast to properly adjust to. His council urged him to make more and more decisions that he would have refused in his youth. And then he arrived. A shadowy man claiming to be a close relative, with powerful Sharingan and dark intentions. In all of his fifty-one, nearly fifty-two years of life, Fugaku Uchiha had only been intimidated by one man.

One by one, he lost things he held dear. His older son Itachi snapped and fled the capital after his cousin was mysteriously kidnapped. He lost one of his closest friends to an ambush, a traitorous move that single-handedly wiped out the man's entire family unit, save for his young son. His own son lost his childhood innocence at too young an age, his eyes forever tainted with the bloody curse that afflicted their whole clan. Once upon a time ago, the king would have given anything to save Sasuke from that curse. Now he could only watch as he descended deeper into isolation, driven to despair by his own heart's darkness like his predecessors before him.

"He… he ordered us to kill them all," he finally muttered softly.

Mikoto's blood ran cold. "Every…?"

"Every last one." Fugaku's lips trembled, and he bowed his head in shame. "Morino must fall."

"Look, it's that newbie Rokuda!" One of the men barked in laughter. "Oi, Rokuda! Your balls drop yet?"

"Hey hey, cut him some slack. He probably ain't even gotten a voice change yet!" Another jeered.

The small group of soldiers laughed loudly, and the smaller, green-haired young man in the middle fidgeted with his gloves nervously.

"OI!" The captain barked, and the group fell quiet. He marched up, stern eyes trained on the group. "All of you, pipe down and get back to your posts!"

The men saluted him and filed away, and then he turned to the man. "As for you, you've got to toughen up! You're in the royal army now, you can't afford to be so spineless. Where's that gumption you showed at the exam?"

"S- Sir, I-"

"C'mon, kid, you ain't gonna last a week with an attitude like that! Stand up for yourself, be a man!" He slapped the recruit's back, making him stumble forward a step. "Ya got that?"

"Y-yes, Sir, I'll try harder." The young man saluted timidly.

"I'll have to try harder… if I can even do anything but shake in my boots when they taunt me. What a mess I am…"

A/N: Please tell me what you thought!