Konohagakure no Sato was, despite grumblings from its enemies, the undisputed strongest shinobi village in the Elemental Nations. One reason, or more precisely THE reason, for its strength was the large number of talented ninja it produces. The kages of other hidden villages often think about the Sandaime Hokage's ability to command notable shinobi and kunoichi with envy. The envy of other kages is something that Sarutobi Hiruzen knew, but the God of Shinobi did wonder from time to time whether his counterparts would be as jealous if they had to deal with the day-to-day weirdness of commanding a group of insanely good, but also just plain insane, ninjas. One of them, on a particular Saturday morning five years after the Kyuubi attack, unbeknown to him, was about to cause him no small amount of headache and add to his inhuman paperwork.

"One of these days you'll be murdered in your sleep." Uchiha Shizuka tapped her foot in a rare show of impatience and agitation. "And I'll have to live with the guilt of knowing that that happened because of my abetment."

"That's a big word for an eight year old." Her brother grinned down at her. Uchiha Shisui, feared by his village's enemies, widely acknowledged genius of the Uchiha clan (and tacitly acknowledged as the wielder of the strongest Sharingan since Uchiha Kagami), respected jounin of Konoha, temporarily stopped adding glitter to the can of pink paint at his feet to dodge his sister's kick. "That's not nice, Shizuka-chan," he tutted. "Your concern is noted. But, really, I'm not doing anything wrong. This is like a training exercise."

"A training exercise that requires that I stand guard at the mouth of this dark and dingy alleyway?"

"Dark and dingy alleyways are a classic for a reason. Sure, it's probably more original to do illegal things - not that I'm doing anything illegal, Shizuka, don't interrupt - in a well-lit alleyway. But, that's not very practical. You're a ninja in training, didn't your sensei teach you that?"

"Sure," Shizuka rolled her eyes. "We spent an entire lecture on the virtues of dark and dingy alleyways. I think that lecture came immediately after why bijuus are terrible for architecture."

"You remind me so much of Kakashi-taicho it's kind of scary." Shisui stood up gracefully from the crouch he was in and looked at his handiwork. "This is ready." He turned towards his sister and held out his hand expectantly, "Now, help me cover the can in ice!"

"Some people actually think my kekkei genkai is scary, you know." The younger Uchiha grumbled. "Not just something to help you with pranks!"

Her brother gave her his most charming smile and threw in puppy-dog eyes just for good measure. Shizuka remained un-swayed for a few moments. She knew that her brother most likely looked at his enemies the same way right before he disarmed them. But, let it not be said that Uchiha Shisui, fearsome shinobi or not, had devastating puppy eyes.

"Fine," Shizuka relented. "But that's the last thing I'm doing for you today. And if I get into trouble you'll have to rescue me." Lifting her left hand, she quickly cast a simple hyouton jutsu, encasing the bucket of paint in ice.

"There, that wasn't so hard now was it!" Shisui took a piece of paper out of his pocket, slapped it on the ice block and picked the entire contraption up. "Now, why don't you wait on that rooftop over there for the show!" At his sister's pout he grinned. "You're not fooling me with the goody-two-shoes act, imouto. You actually want to see this happen don't you?"

Shizuka pouted, folded her arms and looked away, muttering, "Well, I did help you plan it!" The Academy student leapt away from her brother and scrambled onto a nearby roof, not entirely gracefully, which made her scowl (while she had the benefit of learning tree-walking and water-walking exercises due to her clan upbringing, she was not as talented as her brother was at chakra control when he was her age, much to her chagrin). She settled down. Her position afforded her an uninterrupted view of the Hokage Tower and the Hokage Mountain.

Seconds later, her brother appeared behind her, gleefully rubbing his hands together. "Wait for it," he murmured, keeping a sharp eye on the tower exit.

"Can I even ask where you put the…thing?" Shizuka asked. "I mean, I can sort of guess what it would do, but I'd like some warning in case it blows up in the wrong person's face."

"You have to wait for the surprise, imouto, just like everyone else!" The siblings sat in companionable silence for a while, before Shisui suddenly perked up. "Here they come!" He chuckled, before forming his hands into a familiar seal. "Kai!"

There was an explosion, and the entrance to the Hokage Tower was splattered in pink pain and glitter. The horror show was nothing compared to who the paint and glitter also splashed on. Walking out of the Hokage Tower just as the paint bomb went off was one Hyuuga Hiashi. The current head of the Hyuuga clan was also accompanied by Shimura Danzou and two of the old village elder's bodyguards, all of whom, despite excellent shinobi reflexes, were not able to dodge quickly enough. The only one that was not remotely touched by the paint was a silver haired jounin, who casually stepped around the carnage.

"Oops, I missed." Shisui noted cheerfully as he looked down at the scene. Hyuuga Hiashi had his byakugan active in response to what he thought was a threat, whilst the two masked bodyguards stood in front of Danzou with their kunais in hand. "I was hoping to get Kakashi-taicho this time." He grinned. "But, did you see that Hyuuga's face?"

"UCHIHA!" That Hyuuga had found the culprit.

Shisui glanced down at the various ANBU and one extremely ticked-off Hyuuga coming his way, grabbed his sister and said, "Time to go, imouto!" In a second, he was gone, using his famous speed to evade his pursuers. Eventually, he stopped at a very familiar looking house, knocked on the door (because even he knew better to break into this particular house), and shoved Shizuka into the arms of a very startled Nara Yoshino when she answered the door.

"Why don't you hide out for a while here! Hyuuga Hiashi can't possibly storm Shikaku-san's house to get at you!" The resident Uchiha prankster then gave the Nara clan head's wife his best sweet smile, and said, "I'm sorry for pushing Shizuka-chan on you like this on such a short notice, Yoshino-san, but I am afraid I find myself suddenly occupied." With a wink and a quick bow, Shisui shunshinned away.

Yoshino looked down at her husband's goddaughter (and a girl she considered her daughter in all but blood, particularly after her mother passed away four years ago). "Well, what did you do again?"

Shizuka brushed the dust off her clothes before looking up at the Nara with wide, innocent eyes, "I didn't do anything, Yoshino-kaa-san!" She paused for a bit, because lying to a woman who partly raised her was just not something she should do…probably, and added, "It's Shisui's fault I got dragged into this!"

"Hmm." Yoshino shook her head. "Why don't you come inside. Shikamaru is napping, though."

"That's okay!" Shizuka said brightly. "I'll join him!"

"So," Nara Shikaku looked at his goddaughter over a bowl of rice, "Is there any particular reason why Hyuuga Hiashi wants to have you put in Konoha's Bingo Book?"

Shizuka looked at the jounin commander and offered, "Because he's a drama queen who can't take a joke?"

The Nara clan head chuckled, while Shikamaru looked between the two with a confused frown.

"Did he look really pink and glittery?" Shizuka couldn't help asking.

Shikaku gave her a flat stare. "He got whatever you used all over the floor of my office when he came in to yell at me about my hellion of a goddaughter."

"Hey, it wasn't me!" Shizuka protested. "It was Shisui."

"Of course," the Nara went on, completely ignoring the girl, "He was also accompanied by Danzou. A village elder and a clan head?" He shot a stern look at the Uchiha. "There were people nearby who thought it was an assassination attempt.

"Shisui planned it." Shizuka repeated a little lamely. "I had no idea what he wanted to do. Until he did it. Besides, Shisui said his target was his taichou…hehe oops?" The girl rubbed the back of her head and chuckled sheepishly.

Shikaku raised a single eyebrow, but didn't say anything. His goddaughter showed the same precociousness as her brother and his best friend, but she still had much to learn about being ninja, not least of which is plausible denial. "You're welcome to stay here until this blows over."

Shizuka flung her arms around her godfather. "Thank you Shikaku-tou-san! You're the best!"

Late that afternoon, the Sandaime Hokage slumped at his desk, looking at the additional paperwork that spawned due to the trouble one of his most talented young shinobis caused. Granted, he took pleasure (which he knew he was not supposed to, but God of Shinobi or not he was human) in ordering Uchiha Shisui to complete 50 D-rank missions, without pay, as punishment. The horror on the young Uchiha's face made him feel slightly better, but not completely. His head was still throbbing lightly from the passive aggressiveness of one of his oldest friends (and the pure aggressiveness from Hyuuga Hiashia) he wondered yet again why anyone would possibly be jealous of the position he was in.

The Naka River flowed through the edge of Konoha, and a good part of it meandered through the Uchiha clan compound. Two days after the epic (at least according to Shisui) prank, under the dark cover of a moonless night, Shisui slipped out of his house and made his way to a cliff overlooking the rapids. He was tired from waking up extra early to clean the gutters (part of his punishment, which Shisui privately thought was an overreaction on the Hokage's part…he was helping out the village by highlighting an overlooked security loophole after all) before heading out for a short A-rank mission. He would love to sleep, but he had an important appointment to get to.

"You're late!" Came a quiet voice, and Shisui had an unpleasant flashback of the first time he met his taichou for a practice sparring session. However, Shisui also thought that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"Maa, maa, sorry Itachi-kun. You see, a pregnant lady suddenly went into labor just as I was coming here, so I had to take her to the hospital."

"Your imitation of Hatake-san leaves much to be desired," the ten-year old commented drolly.

Shisui patted him on the head, in a way that he knew irked the genius and grinned at the slight scowl he received from his normally stoic clansman, "Much as your annoyance amuses me, we have things to talk about." The grin slid of his face and he regarded the younger Uchiha seriously. "Did it work? What did you find?"

Itachi sighed. "Your distraction, as immature as it was," here he ignored a noise of protest from his best friend and continued on, "was quite successful in temporarily distracting everyone in the Hokage Tower. I was able to slip into the documents room." He took out a storage scroll and handed it to Shisui. "I haven't had a chance to look through the documents. I also wasn't sure what to look for, so I grabbed as many as I could."

Shisui nodded. "That's smart. We still don't know exactly what we are looking for, and sometimes the most boring-looking documents contain the largest clues."

"You should keep this in your house." Itachi said. "Too many suspicious eyes in mine."

"We'll work through these at a later time." Shisui agreed. "Until the uproar surrounding my prank has died down. I don't think anyone suspects that it was anything more than a prank, but Danzo's a crafty old goat. Did you get a chance to quickly skim anything while you were using the document transfer seal?"

"Yes. Most of these are just records for ninjas, as we suspected. There were also meeting records and mission records, though my guess is that most will be heavily redacted or run-of-the-mill."

"As we guessed. Still, this is a good place to start." Shoving the storage scroll into a storage pouch Shisui smiled at his cousin. "A good week's work. It may not seem like much, but we're definitely one step closer to unravelling the little mystery kaa-san left!"

Itachi almost rolled his eyes. Calling what his friend discovered buried underneath a willow tree in his garden a "little mystery" was an understatement of the most epic magnitude that only Shisui could get away with it.

"Itachi?" Shisui interrupted the younger Uchiha's thoughts.

"Hn?"

"I'm considering leaving ANBU."

"Why?"

"Shizuka is on the fast track in the Academy, as you know. She'll graduate next year. I'd like to be here a bit more to support her. Even though a generalized jounin still has a pretty punishing schedule sometimes, I won't get called away unexpectedly. Also," here, the usually jovial teen paused thoughtfully, "I have a feeling that there is a lot more at stake with kaa-san's clues than we imagined. As an ANBU my whereabouts tend to be tracked more since we work in regular teams. As a generalized jounin, no one would keep as close an eye on me, and I won't have a regular team that would miss me if I suddenly don't show up to scheduled training. So, I can do more research."

Itachi nodded. "But, being an ANBU also gives you valuable informal network. You'll have access to places and information we may not get otherwise."

"I hate to ask this of you, but would you mind taking my place?" Shisui sighed. "I know it's not something you would have preferred for yourself, but…"

"No," Itachi interrupted. "I can do it. Besides, there has been…discontent in the clan recently, as you know. If I do this maybe it would keep the peace a bit longer. And, we will continue to have access to opportunities to gain information that may help us."

Shisui clapped his best friend on his back. "Thank you. You'll be in good hands. It's a good team."

The two Uchihas looked out over the Naka River in companionable silence for a minute, before Shisui finally said, "We should leave. Keep a low profile. We'll find a time to go over what you have found."

Itachi nodded. Two shadows slipped back into the darkness.

Four Years Ago

Uchiha Jyun looked down at the pieces of paper and thought about what she had written. Was it too much information? Too little? Was it the wrong information? Should she have just told Shisui everything? No, she decided. It was better to give out the information in bits and pieces. She told herself that it was because the information was too dangerous, and that if the wrong person found it that would be that. Well, if the hypothetical wrong person could get over the incredibly unbelievable part of the explanation first. But, really, if she was honest she just didn't want to write down the entire truth. Not yet. After all, there were no happy endings really in the Uchiha story, and certainly not for her oldest.

She nodded once to herself and folded up the paper. Then, she slipped the paper into a puzzle box. They owned many of these intricate puzzle boxes. Shisui and Shizuka like to play with them, and really each was a work of art. She took the box to a small hole she dug the previous day beneath Akio's favorite willow tree and buried it. Shisui would find it, she knew, and only Shisui. He was the only one old enough to remember where Akio loved to sit on his days off, and she had caught her son sitting in the same spot. Shizuka, who was only two months old when her father died, did not have the same memories. Carefully, she applied a seal over the newly-filled hole. She hoped that the seal, designed to hide disturbances and timed to deteriorate over time, would work. She wasn't a seal master by any means, or knew more than basic Academy seals. But, this was a simple one and it should work (and it did, sort of; the seal deteriorated more slowly than Jyun had thought it would…by the time Shisui found the box he was more than a year off Jyun's schedule).

With one last look at her handiwork, Jyun turned and headed back inside, all the while playing over and over in her head what she had written.

"There is a traitor in Konoha. Follow the trail of the missing children and you will uncover the rotten root. Remember, a tree cannot grow strong when it is being killed from within. The breadcrumbs will give you more information."