Shizuka sighed. The eight-year-old sat slumped at her desk, large, honey-brown eyes staring forlornly out of the Academy window. She knew that her current posture was quite unbecoming of an Uchiha, but she just couldn't find it in herself to care. The Academy was boring. The imports and exports of the Land of Hot Springs wasn't an unimportant topic. In fact, this kind of background knowledge about other countries would be crucial to future missions, particularly ones that require infiltration. Shizuka understood that perfectly. But, there were only so much one could listen to about how crucial the Land of Fire's trade of lumber is to the economy of the country that is home to Yugakure. Besides, anyone could guess that one of Hi no Kuni's major exports would be lumber. The shinobi village, after all, was name the Village Hidden in the Leaves. That, and really most of the nations don't really have large swarths of readily available forest to speak of. The Land of Hot Springs, consisting mostly of sulfurous ground, would not be one of those countries that had an abundance of forests. Thus, instead of concentrating on the lecture, the Uchiha girl stared out at the clouds. Perhaps, she admitted to herself, her godfather and Shikamaru may have rubbed off on her.

A pencil dug into her side, and Shizuka barely contained a yelp. She whipped around to glare at her neighbor. Yamanaka Koa, the picture of sweetness, innocence, and propriety stared straight ahead at the blackboard with her guileless light green eyes. Guileless to anyone but the Uchiha, who, having diverted her attention from cloud-watching was currently glaring a hole into the side of her face. The Yamanaka ignored the Uchiha, letting her friend stew for a few seconds, before subtly tapping her notebook with her pencil. Shizuka looked down. While she was staring out of the window, Koa had managed to scribble a note. "Stop cloud watching. If you're not careful, chibi, people will think you're an illegitimate Nara bastard."

Shizuka rolled her eyes discretely. Only Koa would be able to insult her clan, her parentage, her personality, and her godfather and his entire clan in one sentence. Picking up her own pencil, she decided to humor her friend and continue the scribbled conversation.

"And I suppose you find the lumber industry the most fascinating thing in the world? Also, stop calling me chibi."

"You are three years younger than me. And you're short. And cute."

"Is there a point to all of this?"

"I thought you would enjoy me stimulating conversation."

"I'd rather listen to why Yugakure needs lumber."

"Touché." The Yamanaka hummed almost imperceptibly, before quicky writing, "I need you to help me with shuriken jutsu. It's passable, and I won't fail the graduation exam, but my tou-san said I'm overly reliant on clan jutsu. Doesn't your brother train with you every afternoon?"

"Are you sure you're not just asking because you have a crush on nii-san?" Shizuka flashed a wicked smile before subtly shifting to avoid the kick to the shin the Yamanaka aimed at her.

"Please. We only need one Yamanaka fangirling over an Uchiha in the family. My younger cousin, Ino, seems to fulfill that role perfectly."

"What do I get out of this?"

"My undying friendship?"

"You're intruding on my sibling bonding time!"

The Yamanaka could almost hear the whine in the words. She knew her friend well enough to know that she was just being difficult on purpose, though.

"I could make sure you don't fail kunoichi classes. As I recall you suck at flower arrangement. And you call yourself a Uchiha. Mikoto-sama must be so disappointed."

"Fine."

"Nii-san!" Shisui barely had time to brace himself before his little sister barreled into him. He grinned down at Shizuka. Being a generalized jounin had its perks. A more flexible schedule chief among them. He enjoyed picking his sister up from the Academy, something he had missed out on while he was in ANBU.

"Hey short stuff!" Shisui ruffled his sister's hair, ignoring an indignant yelp. "Ready to have some fun?"

"I told my friend she could come, too!"

"Hello, Shisui-san."

Shisui's head whipped around as he peered at the girl who was standing a little off to the side. Her long blond hair and pupilless light green eyes gave away her heritage as a Yamanaka. He warily examined her before turning to look at his younger sister. Adorable as his imoutou was, he was under no allusions that she was an angel. She was his sister after all, and not above pulling a prank. Setting a fangirl disguised as a perfectly normal human being on him would be her idea of a good time.

"She's not a fangirl!" Shizuka ground out indignantly, knowing exactly what her brother was thinking.

"Yamanaka Koa, nice to meet you!" The blonde bowed respectfully, ignoring her younger friend's eye roll. Koa may not have much respect for authority, but this was Shunshin no Shisui, who at thirteen was already a highly accomplished jounin. The teenager deserves some respect.

"Well…" Shisui grinned, "As long as you're not going to start blushing, or fainting, or giggling, you can come train with us. Though, today I'm helping this one," here he gave his sister an unceremonious poke in the cheek, "Practice taijutsu, I could give you a couple of tips on whatever you want to work on."

"Shuriken jutsu." Shizuka supplied helpfully.

Shisui nodded sagely. "While any Uchiha would be quite adequate at performing shuriken jutsu, I'm glad that you came to seek help from the great Shisui-sama." For his efforts, he received two identical eyerolls in response. Yes, Shisui was definitely a shinobi that commanded respect…until he started talking.

The older Uchiha led the younger girls away from the Academy and towards the Uchiha compound.

"You know," Koa mused, "I've never realized this, but the Uchiha compound is pretty far out of the way. I can't recall ever visiting."

Shisui sighed. "It used to be closer to the Market District," he murmured, "But it was levelled in the Kyuubi attack. Afterwards, we were given this land to rebuild. The council thought we may like…a larger compound."

"That seems very generous."

"Well, it certainly gives us room to spread out," Shisui answered delicately, waving at the Uchiha guards on duty as they walked past.

"You've got to try the senbei!" Shizuka, recognizing a sensitive topic if there ever was one, quickly jumped in. "They're the best!"

Shisui perched on a tree at the edge of one of the Uchiha compound's many training grounds, keeping a critical eye on his sister, who was currently sparring in taijutsu with his clone, and the Yamanaka girl, who was going through a series of shuriken exercises.

"You're not worried that Shizuka would figure out she's fighting a clone?" His companion asked.

"Much as I love my sister and think that she definitely hung the moon and stars, I'm not biased enough to not see that she's abysmal at taijutsu, Itachi."

"Hn."

"So, how is training?"

"It is…challenging."

Shisui gave him a quick sympathetic look. ANBU training, even for Uchiha geniuses, was brutal. The most secretive arm of Konoha's shinobi forces did not retain its fearful and efficient reputation by letting anyone waltz in. In fact, ANBU training followed the (unofficial) mantra of, "tear 'em down and build 'em back better."

"Did you encounter those agents again?"

Itachi remembered the strange agents he and Shisui encountered over a year ago. They were dressed like ANBU agents, but not quite. The strange shinobi wore masks without the usual bright paint of the ANBU. Since then, the two Uchiha had been trying to track them down.

"You suspect that they're tied to the notes your kaa-san left behind."

"It fits, doesn't it? But…" Shisui trailed off, his eyes never leaving his sister's form. "If they are related, then this whole thing just became a lot more dangerous. Not just for us, either."

Itachi frowned, his thoughts on his younger brother, who he loved more than anything in the world, and on the young girl, who he had grown up with, sparring (badly) with a clone beneath him. "I'll be on alert for any information. I have not run into any of them yet."

Shisui nodded. "I haven't seen them since our encounter. I didn't really expect you to run into them after a month."

The younger Uchiha tilted his head, silently asking his older clansman a question.

"Unfortunately," Shisui sighed, fingers splayed before his eyes, "I haven't found anything about missing children. The Academy and orphanage records you stole were helpful…to an extent. They are very detailed, but I could account for every child on the list. I have a bad feeling that whatever records we're looking for are sealed, or worse, destroyed. We may be looking for something that does not exist anymore."

"Maybe," Itachi murmured thoughtfully, "There are other clues."

Shisui looked at his friend sharply. "Other clues?"

"If your kaa-san thought that the information she was trying to convey was important enough that she went to such great length to hide it, she wouldn't just stop at one clue. What if you never found it? For insurance's sake she would have at least left something else."

Shisui carded his fingers through his hair. "That's…likely. Kaa-san was never one to leave things to chance." He slapped Itachi suddenly, and grinned, "I knew there was a reason I kept you around!"

Itachi sighed in exasperation before looking seriously at Shisui. "We must move quickly. You too must feel the discontent in the clan." He was answered by a grim nod.

"I can't help but feel we're racing against a clock. But," Shisui brightened, "right now the days are still long! We should enjoy time with our friends and family!" He grabbed the younger boy and leapt off the branch he was resting on, landing softly in the middle of a (rather pitiful) spar between his sister and his clone.

"Gah!" Shizuka yelled, before she pointed at Shisui indignantly and squawked, "I was fighting a clone?"

"You couldn't land a hit on me anyway!" Her brother exclaimed cheerfully, ignoring her insulted look, before thrusting Itachi forward like a wayward puppy. "Besides, look what I found!"

"Itachi!" Shizuka flung her arms around the Uchiha clan heir. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you around in ages!"

Itachi gave her a small, but nonetheless fond, smile. "Around." He said, vaguely.

"Well, do you want to get dango? Dango-ya has a couple of new flavors!"

Itachi nodded. "That sounds good."

"Great! We can all go! Koa!" Shizuka spun around to face her friend, who was collecting her shuriken from around the targets. "Do you want to get dango with us?"

"You go right ahead!" Koa said. "I have to be back home in ten minutes, or else kaa-san will send out a search party."

Shisui raised an eyebrow. The Yamanaka girl did not look like she was exaggerating. That kind of overprotectiveness may be common for the parents of civilian-born Academy students, but for a clan kid it was downright strange.

"Ah," Koa looked slightly sheepish at the Uchiha teen's stare. "Anyway, thank you for showing me how tricks on how to throw shuriken properly, Shisui-san!" She waved and took off for the gates.

"What's wrong, nii-san?" Shizuka asked, trying to drag the two older boys forward in the direction of the dango shop, only to find both looking at her friend's retreating back in suspicion.

"Your friend's parents seem strangely…concerned with her whereabouts." Itachi answered for his friend.

"Oh," Shizuka frowned. "Well. They've been like this since I've known Koa. But I only joined the class this year. Koa said they weren't always so protective, but then something happened with one of her younger cousins." With a hard tug, she managed to get the two other Uchiha to fall into step with her.

"Fu just disappeared one day. Apparently." Shizuka added, not noticing the two boys starting (very, very imperceptibly, they were highly trained, after all) and exchanging glances over her head. "Koa never told me what happened." The girl scrunched up her nose. "She implied that her parents have been nervous about letting her out of their sights since then."

Out of the mouth of babes. Shisui would have started laughing hysterically if it wasn't for his younger sister's presence. The information that he'd been looking for in all those tedious, tedious records that Itachi stole for him from the Hokage Tower archives was just handed to him on a silver platter. Briefly Shisui mourned the months he wasted on digging through Academy transcripts and D-rank paperwork. The great Shunshin no Shisui was NOT cut out for paper-pushing! Of course, he consoled himself, it wasn't as though the information he just received was something that he could have gained just from conversing with Shizuka. He talked with his sibling all the time, but honestly why would he ever have thought to ask Shizuka whether any of her classmates' clansmen had randomly and suspiciously gone missing?

On the girl's other side, Itachi was equally deep in contemplation. Clan children. The missing children were clan children. That made sense. A horrifying kind of sense, but it was logical nonetheless. It explained why neither he nor Shisui were able to find records of missing children. Academy records in the Hokage Tower, particularly in the accessible part of the archives that he looted, only covered shinobi who were from non-clan families, civilian-born, or orphans. Records of clan members were clan property, and the clans had always jealously guarded their archives. Of course, the Village had access to clan member records, but only once those members became chuunin (and thus deemed "essential to the security of the Village"). Otherwise, civilian clan members and Academy age and genin clan members tend to fall under the purview of the clan heads and/or their councils. This type of autonomy was granted out of respect for the clans that had voluntarily joined Konoha in the founding years, in recognition for the self-governance that the clans were giving up at the time.

Clans, Itachi continued to muse, would definitely be loath to report missing children. Coming from an old, proud, established clan himself, he knew that clans preferred to sort things out themselves, sometimes to detrimental results. The Hyuuga Incident was a prime example of the clans' "do first, ask forgiveness later" mentality gone wrong. Missing clan children would further be seen as something quite shameful. A clan that couldn't protect its own children would be seen as weak. Of course, then, clans who had missing children would want to keep things quiet and hope that they would be able to find the children themselves. The genius realized, with horrifying suddenness, that kidnapping clan children (if done successfully) was the perfect crime. There would be no large scale searches, no high-profile missions taken out. There would just be a clan, stewing and trying to find out what happened from scarce clues, because kami forbid if any of the clans actually ask for help from each other (with the exception of the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans, of course).

"I-ta-chi!" Shizuka's voice tugged him out of his thoughts, and Itachi found himself face to face with a stick of matcha dango. "You look very worried. Are you okay? Here's your portion!"

Itachi had to smile. Trust Shisui's younger sister to leap from one unrelated subject to another. He knew, though, that the girl was worried. She may seem naïve and carefree, but she was uncannily observant. Really, Shizuka was frighteningly like Shisui in that regard.

"It's nothing you need to be concerned about. Where's Shisui?"

"He's waiting for the tea." Brown eyes narrowed, and Shizuka's voice dropped. "Does it have anything to do with what nii-san's been preoccupied about for the past few months?"

Itachi paused. Shizuka's thoughts raced. She knew her brother and Itachi well enough to understand that they were worried. About what, she couldn't be sure yet, but it must be something serious since she had caught her brother with his brows furrowed in thought (a very unusual occurrence for Shisui) an alarming number of times. However, she also trusted the two older Uchiha enough not to push.

"You don't have to tell me," Shizuka rested a hand on Itachi's. "But you have to keep each other safe! And to tell Fugaku-san if things get too out of hand."

Itachi agreed with a silent nod. While he was glad that Shizuka didn't force the issue (it was just one of the many reasons he was fond of Shisui's younger sister), he also found it slightly exasperating, given the circumstances, that Shizuka had always held his father in high regard. He couldn't very well tell the girl, though, that his father is part of the reason (however indirectly) that he and Shisui were mired in the tangled web of secrets and conspiracies in the first place.

"You two look like you're engaged in serious conversation!" Shisui slipped into the seat next to his sister's, holding a tray with three steaming cups of tea. "I hope you are not deciding to elope together. That would break my, and Mikoto-san's, heart!"

With one last meaningful glance at Itachi, Shizuka turned and beamed at her older brother, pulling out her most adorable puppy dog eyes. "I'll never marry and I'll stay with you forever, nii-chan!"

Predictably, Shisui's heart melted.

"I hope you have a better plan than 'break into every clan's compound.'" Itachi informed Shisui archly. The two Uchihas both sat cross-legged in their favorite meeting spot, the cliff that overlooked the rushing Naka River.

"Of course," Shisui said, insulted. "Who do you think I am?"

Itachi patiently waited for the plan.

"We're going to break into every clan's compound AND look for the clan archive and find relevant documents."

Itachi honestly should have expected this. He sighed. It seemed like he had to lay everything out. "Shisui, breaking into clan compounds is difficult, especially the clan archives. We could be suspected of jutsu theft."

"Yes, yes." Shisui waved his hand impatiently. "Next you'll be telling me that there'll be guards and traps and seals that are potentially lethal, and that there are shinobi that could see through walls or smell out intruders." He grinned at the annoyed look his friend shot him. Really, if aggravating Itachi wasn't such a challenge (and so much fun to do) he wouldn't bother.

The older Uchiha finally decide to put his younger clansman out of his misery. "It sounds ridiculous, but there is no other way to access clan archives." Shisui pointed out seriously. "But, we don't have to break into the clans, at least not all of them. We just need to break into the clans' archives."

"We have access to our own clan archives, so we could start there." Itachi immediately saw where Shisui was going. "I don't expect we'll find anything, though. We would have known if any Uchiha had gone missing. However, how do you propose we get into the other clans?" What was left unsaid, of course, was that the Uchihas were not exactly popular guests at the moment.

"Well, I do have an adorable little sister." Shisui grinned slyly.

"Hn." Itachi understood. That was not Shisui boasting in that proud nii-chan way of his. Well, not entirely. The cheerful, goofy, sarcastic younger sister of the shunshin genius was more well-liked by other clans than the typical Uchiha. Perhaps most of it could be chalked up to her ties to her godfather Nara Shikaku. However, Itachi suspected that her personality was the main reason for her popularity. She was, Itachi frowned internally, appallingly good-natured for a ninja. No, not good-natured, that was perhaps the wrong word. Shizuka could pick a fight as well as anybody. Perhaps a better way to put it would be that she put people at ease, not as a means of deception like so many shinobis did; rather, it was a talent that came naturally to her. She had a way of dispelling tension and making others comfortable that made her presence enjoyable. Even the Hyuugas tolerated her, and the white-eyed clan hated their fellow dark-eyed doujutus users on principle. Of course, her talent only went so far. The civilians tend to be wary and suspicious of any Uchiha, and it was not a prejudice that Shizuka could overcome.

"She'll get us in through the door. Most doors anyway." Shisui paused. Even Shizuka would have difficulty securing an invite to the Hyuuga compound. Not that he would exactly want to visit the byakugan wielders, those white eyes were creepy (and yes, he fully understood the hypocrisy of his accusation). "We'll start with the easy ones, the ones that would definitely not arouse suspicion. After we double check our clan archives, I think we should try and get into the Nara one. Then we'll proceed from there."

Itachi nodded. While it wasn't as solid a plan as he liked, it was still enough to at least give them actionable items for the next week or so.

"You need to be more careful, though, if you intend to involve Shizuka." Itachi warned. "She's onto you."

"I did wonder what you were talking about together that day at the dango shop." Shisui scratched his head sheepishly. "Unfortunately, Shizuka does read me like an open book. But, I'll try to be more discrete."

"You're a jounin."

"And she's my sister. Just because Sasuke is entirely too unobservant doesn't mean that all siblings are."

Itachi glared. Shisui just gave him an innocent smile and patted him on the head. "Best be off!" He announced, standing up and stretching. Then, he glanced at Itachi. "See you in the archives tomorrow."