I OWN NOTHING IN THIS FANFICTION EXCEPT FOR MY OC. I DON'T OWN MUCH OF ANYTHING WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT...
{/} Kakashi POV {\}
It's only been 12 hours since the return of Lazarus and he'd already found out what happened a week prior. I would be surprised if I didn't spend so much time with him, a comrade I hadn't failed. A friend I didn't let slip away from me.
Those were the thoughts I had stewing in the back of my head as I leaned against a wall next to Chisuke Uchiha. A man thought to have died alongside his comrades, after his disappearance during the fated Kyuubi no Youku attack all those years ago, I too fell into that group.
Luckily, that was only speculation. Chisuke somehow survived, proven by the leaf-coated man before me. Fast asleep in stable condition on a hospital bed I volunteered to . Not only as a break from my Anbu duties, but to ensure Danzo and Lord Third's doubts to be incorrect myself.
'At least now I have one of us survive besides me, Obito, Rin.'
"Damn it..." growled a low voice before me, 'when did he get up?' I was so enthralled with my own thoughts the person I was supposed to be watching got up and began watching outside before I even realized.
"Oh, Chisuke," I quickly greeted with a wave and a smile under my mask, "Up and at 'em I see!" I was trying my best to lighten the mood, only getting a light chuckle in response before a maelstrom began to form.
The atmosphere began to grow thick and the calm ocean became choppy. He was going to ask me questions. Heavy questions. I wasn't too sure on how to answer them. But what I did know was that I needed to answer every one of his questions.
"How many?" was his first question. Cold and emotionless, he was more than likely hiding the pain he was feeling, dragging the air around us down to the bottom of the sea as he did so.
I knew what the rest of that question was. He wanted to know how many were involved in the act. How many pairs of hands were stained in the process of the extermination of his clan. Lying here wouldn't make sense, in fact it might hurt me even more to lie here. But the truth still stung me in my aorta to tell him.
"One" this was one out of three questions he asks, how many were involved, are there survivors, and who. Each of which is going to kill me inside more and more to answer.
My response given, I waited in silence for Chisuke to speak again. Letting him take in the one word I uttered bitterly.
"Survivors?" another question I'm going to regret having to answer.
Taking a deep breath in, I provide him with the truth yet again, "Unfortunately only one. Satsuki Uchiha. Eight years of age." before repeating what I did last time I answered.
"Who?" the final question the worst part about this interrogation. The question that'll send the chains of guilt the most tightly around my heart to answer.
Once again, I take a deep breath before delivering my answer, "Itachi Uchiha."
The second I said that name I could've sworn I was looking at the back of the Shinigami himself. The atmosphere wasn't cold, it simply knew not the meaning of warmth. For only a second, all life exited not only the hospital room, but all of Konoha. Before returning as fast as it left.
Leaving both me and Chisuke as still as stone for longer than I even realized. I wasn't even sure if the Uchiha before me even breathed during the rest of our time together. He only stared at the birds outside and I at him.
{/} 3rd PERSON POV {\}
Some hours pass by, with Chisuke going back to sleep and Kakashi eventually ends up getting called by the Third Hokage and leaves before he reawakens. By the time the Uchiha does come to, He's met with no one in the room but himself.
"No point in sulking, what would Shisui think of me if he saw me like this?" he asked himself glaring up at the bland ceiling.
Looking still tired despite the hours of sleep he had stacked on; he damn near jumps out of his sheets. And he would've done the same to his room's windows as well –and in a more literal sense too- but paused. Instead spinning around to the perfectly working door behind him.
'Can't be giving them any ammo this early' was his reasoning.
From his room he headed to downstairs and outside the hospital, masking his presence on the way down. Remembering to make sure that anyone at least Genin level and above can still see him if they tried.of course.
The next thing to do was explore now that he was freed from his hospitable prison, get his mind off of things a bit. Witness what he's been missing these past few years, ya know?
Starting with one of the best buildings in all of the Hidden Leaf: Shushu-ya.
*_Shushu-ya_*
It's an early evening at the famed sake shop and restaurant, so all of the current patrons were either civilians who got off shops of their own or teachers of the ninja academy. So, a typical day for the establishment.
Among these stressed individuals, was the recently awakened Uchiha. Standing right outside the joint with a faint and forced smile. He smiled, knowing none that walked past could've seen his unveiled mask.
Not that he was hiding particularly trying to not be noticed anymore. Why try to mask your presence from drunkards? Seems like a waste of effort to try and hide from someone who's lashed more than the son of a crack addict?
Enjoying a peculiarly red liquid in his cup, the images of last night –in all their blurry glory- frantically zoom through his head again. Not packing nearly as much of a mental punch as when it first appeared, thanks to its immense and breakless frequency from then until he first got up to chat with Kakashi
"This is the stuff..." the lad couldn't help but sigh in relief, not at all because he was on his way to becoming three sheets in the wind as well.
Now they weren't paralyzing daymares that felt like they were sent by the eyes of his younger brother's best friend. They were closer to faint memories from a recently woken from nightmare. Which was a more natural feeling all things considered.
This was a sacred ceremony for Chisuke, having to spend at least 2 hours there before he can leave with his head bad. one that he's done five times before. When and only when he needs to clear his head's cache for a bit. Or if there was an unusually difficult mission marathon he had to run prior.
And today was no different. 3 hours, 2 warnings of liver damage and 8 bottles later, the boy finally decides to have enough and leave. Paying with the money he found next to his hospital bed, he heads off, just a little tipsy with a B.A.C. of about 0.05.
Doing what you'd expect a tipsy grieving Uchiha to do next; wander about the village aimlessly. Without showing much of the usual signs of having a bad head aside from deeply reddened cheeks. Thanks to his trainings both in and out of the village with many different poisons.
He would go all around Konoha. From the main streets and the market place to random alleyways, taking in the scenery. All with a sombre smile across his face, no matter how boring or uninteresting most of the place was.
A smile that got wiped off the face of the planet in a matter of seconds.
*_Some Random Alleyway_*
"P-Please! I have nothing else!" a little blonde girl yelped in fear before four menacing looking men. each holding some kind of melee weapon, whether it be a 2*4 or a switch blade.
"Now now, missy!" condescended one of the burly looking men, wagging a finger at her with a predatory smile, "Don't think you can just lie to us like that!" he finished holding a green wallet in front of the girl.
"It's the tr-" the blonde tried to protest, but a quick shove to the ground by a different thug said otherwise. Sending her crashing to the ground with a hard thud and a soft 'ow'.
"Can it, demon!" shouted the man who pushed her with venom leaking from his vocal cords.
Seeing no other option, she does as she's told, fighting back tears of pain and sorrow as the men eye her up and down before sending each other off-putting glares. Speaking to each other under their breaths. This was a common occurrence for her. Being abused by random thugs and civilians for no apparent reason.
And all while no one did anything. "She deserved it for nearly destroying our sacred village!", "Serves that demon brat right, she killed my husband!", "It shouldn't be graced with the gift of life after taking my older brother's!" were just a few of the comments this twin tailed blonde had to endure hearing in her day-to-day life since she was 5.
The men continued having their silent conversation together, their faces contorting more and more devilishly by the second. By the time they all turned back to the young lass they were grinning from ear-to-ear. Unsavory acts of unholiness plastered across the thoughts of the men's minds. Whatever they were planning it was bad, and the blond knew it but couldn't do anything as the men also began to slowly close in on her prepubescent form.
One of them got in closer before the rest, letting out a sick perverted grin while stretching out a damp and clammy hand at the blonde's. Getting within inches before pausing suddenly.
"What the-" was all he would've gotten out before his hand then jerked back violently behind and above him. Pulling his arm by the wrist painfully hard and vertically 90 degrees. Leaving him nearly off of the ground. With enough speed and force to damn near rip his hand clean off, but only tearing ligaments and tendons in the shoulder, wrist and elbow.
That didn't stop the man's shoulder from feeling like it was ripped off, however. Horrid screams of pain and shock escaped his lips as he didn't even try looking around. The pain was too great for straight thinking for him. Instead, he just stood there-or rather slightly hovered- bawling his lungs out and trying to yank his hand from the invisible force that held his arm. To no avail.
His buddies also stared inwardly at their comrade's hand, unwilling to try and pull with him in fear of actually prising it off. Among the gang of unlucky bastards, one had a keen eye, and would have already known the source of the sudden movement switch unlike his colleagues.
"Ninja wire" he'd say kind of to himself and kind of to the rest, startling all of them
"What?!" shrieked another of the remaining four in panic.
"You said no shinobi cared about this one!" exclaimed another.
"I did" the smarter one retorted with a calm tone, "But it seems that I was wrong this time, best to leave now while we can. There's nothing we can do about Kyle there; ordinary blades can't cut even a weak ninja wire."
The group paused altogether, silently conversing without word trying to debate on saving Kyle. Choosing to dip like pussies instead of saving their captured friend. Leaving a distressed and confused little girl with blond hair and blue eyes behind them as well.
Who wasted no time and sprinted full speed away from the scene in fear of another group of adults appearing.
"Huh?" she muttered subconsciously trying to understand what she had just witnessed as she sat on a staircase in a building she found familiar.
It was her apartment's, she wasn't too far from her home when she noticed she was being tailed and started walking to everywhere that wasn't her apartment in hopes that they'll just give up. To think they'd pop out of hiding the second she went through one of the darker alleyways...
Back to the thugs, there was now three of them. One up and vanished without a trace when they were running away. The three didn't even know when he disappeared. Like a fart in the wind, he was gone. Which would send the reminders in a panicked frenzy.
"Shit!" one gritted between his teeth, "We can't show our faces in here! I'm supposed to be exiled!" the man gasped turning through the surprisingly complex alleyway system not even knowing what he was running from.
"Damn!" added another," I'm supposed to be dead from a failed mission!" he finished with pure fear in his eyes.
"Shut up you two!" interjected the keen one from earlier, who was in front of them, "I didn't recruit you to run your mou-" he would've finished his tirade, but hardened piece of concrete slammed itself straight into his temple from out of nowhere.
The other two swiftly stop both talking and running to take in their surroundings. Both with the same question in mind, "Where in the ever-loving FUCK are we?!" Nothing about where they were seemed familiar to them, everything appeared so alien to them. Not to mention their leader currently on Niquel across the floor next to them.
"This is not good... How did we even let this happen to us?" one asks.
"Because you are worse than scum..." grimaced an echoey voice, adding to the list of things they were yet to recognize and jump scaring both remaining survivors..
Shitting bricks internally, the bigger of the two begins to steel his nerves, "Sh-Show yourself coward!" shouted the hypocrite with a boastful tone.
"But I already have!" the voice would shoot back with gusto that mirrored the thug's audacity.
As out of nowhere as his words, the man behind the FNaF moment appears from the shadows. Walking ever so slowly into the faint light from some lantern above. A psychopath's smile on his lips and a serial killer's bloodlust in his pitch-black eyes. The men thought that if killing intent had a face, it would be his.
"Tell me," he spoke in a bone-chillingly calm voice, "do you believe in god?" there was something wrong about that question, but the poor souls didn't even get a chance to try and figure it, nor give and answer as their consciousness began to slip through their fingers from stress and fear.
"One, two, they're coming for you," he began to chant, edging closer and closer with a glare that could murder a crow on the spot, "Three, four, better lock your doors. Five, six, grab a crucifix," he adds, turning his onyx eyes into the reddened hue of the Sharingan, spinning them like Beyblades, "Seven, eight, gotta stay up late, "Nine, ten, never wake agai-"
*_The Council Meeting Room_*
Seated in their chairs were Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo, and the village elders. Surrounded closely by their respective Anbu bodyguards, including Kakashi Hatake. Hiruzen had a focused look on his face, one that said "this is not a negotiation".
"I'm guessing my Anbu told you all why I have you assembled here?" he asked with a stern voice searching the room for his guests' reactions through his interlocked fingers.
"Is it because of that Uchiha?" asked one of the clan heads with narrowly less than enough distain to make Kakashi flinch on his spot on the Third Hokage's side..
Hiruzen's eyes instantly zoom over to the culprit, a man with almost bleach-white eyes and darkish skin, "Houzo Hyuga," the Sarutobi began, "This 'Uchiha' has a name, Chisuke. I recommend you use it when addressing him otherwise this meeting'll end early for you."
The old man would seize up in fear upon hearing Hiruzen's harsh tone, giving him a stiff nod before staying silent.
"That goes for everyone here, got it?" Lord Third added, stiffening all in the room like wood except for the old Warhawk on his left, "Now, onto the subject at hand; we all know that he is the last male Uchiha as of right now, and Satsuki is the last female Uchiha-"
"Are you saying you want those two to procreate?!" interrupted a woman with shoulder-length, blonde hair with a single bang which falls down into her face. In a mix of amusement and shock.
"Get her out of here" the Sandaime simply stated with a wave.
And like that, the woman in white was gone and out of the room. Not even getting a chance to say anything, she got shunshin'd right out the second the third spoke.
"Anyway," he would sigh, "Satsuki is the last female Uchiha, but she is also still a child. A child who would need supervision from an adult," he stops, awaiting the next to speak –hopefully not out of turn.
"So, you've brought us here to inform us that he's adopting her?" chimed a different woman, giving Hiruzen a sigh of relief that no one heard. This woman had an untamed, deep brown mane and a red vertical mark on each cheek. Trademarks of the Inuzuka Clan.
'Finally, someone with a brain opened their mouth.'
"Not exactly, Tsume," the old man smiled lightly at the woman, gaining a 'huh?' from her, "I called you all here to inform you that he is to be a part of the Leaf officially. I had his mind scanned by the head of the Yamanaka clan while he was asleep, he was saved by a kind Hermit that lived not too far away."
"That sounds like complete horseshit!" is what most of those here including a bandaged up male wanted to say but didn't. No, they couldn't. They knew better than to say anything even remotely disrespectful about the Sandaime Hokage. They were losing their grip on him somehow. And at a rate they never thought possible.
'Shit! What the fuck did that Uchiha do?!' was all half of them had to say.
"In short, he is a member of Konhagakure. And thus has the rights to adopt her if he so chooses," Hiruzen spoke after what felt like hours (but was only 5 seconds), his tone still stiffening the councilmen, "He also has rights for the CRA as he is to be the head of the Uchiha Clan, starting today he can enter this room during our meetings as a Clan Head."
Every word brought either more hatred to the boy, or confusion about Hiruzen and his motives. But again, everyone bit their tongues, afraid of getting the Mebuki treatment.
"Since nobody has anything to say, this meeting is adjourned. Dismissed!"
With another wave of his hand, all of the elders and Clan heads were out of the room and out of the building.
"When I said you needed to be a little more assertive, I didn't mean pull a full 180 in one night, Hiruzen-sama," Kakashi would exhale with a grin under his blue mask, relaxing his posture a bit.
"No, Kakashi, I'm tired of pretending to be the old pushover those idiots want me to be," the man puffed from his magical pipe that's always lit before he even pulls it out. Another sigh escapes from the silver fox before Hiruzen would continue.
"Thanks to my little act to see if the council was an actual asset to me as a leader or not, I sent an entire clan to their graves and one of the only remaining survivors had to come back to his entire family taken from him."
Kakashi wanted to say something in protest. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. The professor was correct, it was all Hiruzen's fault. But even so, he was still the frickin Hokage. And he can't let the Uchiha massacre alone define his leadership.
"You're right, Sandaime-sama. But even so you're making up for that. Nothing you do will bring them back, they're gone. But Chisuke and Satsuki is here now, alongside Naruko and Koeru Uzumaki."
"You're right," the third lord drawed from his pipe much longer than he would normally before going on, "Nothing can bring the lives lost back, but that won't stop me from bringing those who conspired the Uchihas' downfall to justice. Except for one, I'll leave him up for Satsuki and Chisuke."