Disclaimer, I don't own anything in Naruto, except my OCs
Chapter 7 – Red sun over paradise
As Tomoe and Sasuke slowly entered the compound, there was an eerie silence, as well as a faint metallic scent in the air. Unnerved by the silence, they decided to head home as fast as possible and started running towards their home. As they turned a corner onto the living quarters of the Uchiha compound, they saw scattered shuriken and kunai lying on the ground and stuck in the walls, as well as deep cuts along the walls of the houses.
The twins stopped in shock at the cuts and scattered weaponry. Tomoe walked a bit closer to the walls to get a better look at the cuts, "Those are sword marks," she said quietly.
Tomoe and Sasuke eyes widened in fear. At first, they had considered that it could have been their father had stopped the New Year's celebration early but, the cuts and scattered weapons debunked that idea. The twins looked at each other, nodded, and started running towards their house.
As the twins ran through the living quarters, they saw more and more weaponry scattered about, while the metallic scent became stronger and stronger.
As the duo ran towards their house, they passed the Uchiha senbei stand and saw two people lying on the ground. Hopeful and afraid, they ran over to the bodies and started shaking them and calling for them to wake up.
"Hey, Go-ojiisama, Han-obaasama? Are you ok? Please wake up!"
As they shook the bodies of the elderly couple, they saw that they were lying in a pool of blood. When they realised that the elderly couple was the source of the blood, both twins recoiled from the bodies in fear and let out a scream in shock.
"They... they... they're dead," Tomoe said in a shaky voice.
"So that's what that smell was," Sasuke said in realisation, "blood."
Both twins were now terrified by the bodies and feared what might have happened to their parents. They looked at each other with a panicked expression and started sprinting towards their house.
As Tomoe and Sasuke ran towards their home, they passed multiple similar scenes to the one they saw at the senbei stand, which led to them getting more panicked and pushing themselves to run as fast as they could and focusing on getting home.
As Tomoe and Sasuke arrived at their home, they felt as if the already quiet clan compound somehow got even quieter. The twins took a deep breath and slowly entered their home.
"Mom? Dad?" Tomeo said in a low shaky voice as they slowly made their way through the foyer.
When no one answered, she walked slowly into the west wing of the house while Sasuke decided to check out the east wing. One by one, they eventually checked every room on the first floor of their house, but they saw no sign of their parents or anyone else. As the twins started to worry about the whereabouts of their parents, they heard a loud thump followed by a crash from their father's study on the second floor.
When the twins heard the noise, they headed for their father's study. When they reached the door to their father's study, Sasuke reached for the handle on the door but froze in place before he gripped the handle. Tomoe looked at her brother and could see the fear on his face. Steeling her nerves, Tomoe grabbed Sasuke's hand in her own, placed it on the door handle, and they slowly opened the door together.
Their father's study was a large rectangular room with a desk and some bookshelves at the opposite end of the door, with a large empty space between the desk and the door.
When they opened the door, however, the space between the door and the desk was not empty. In the middle of the room, they saw their parents' bodies lying on the floor lit up by the moonlight coming in through the window. They were about to rush to their side when they noticed a figure wielding a blood-covered sword looming over the bodies of their parents.
The figure was standing behind the bodies of their parents with his face covered in darkness.
"Wh- wh- who are you and, what have you done to our parents?" Sasuke was the first to find his voice and speak.
"Foolish little brother, can't you recognise your own brother?" the figure replied, as it walked further into the moonlight revealing Itachi's face, Sharingan flaring in his eyes.
"I- I- Itachi-niisan?" Sasuke stammered.
"Ichi-nii, what's going on?" Tomoe asked, her voice shaking. "What happened here?"
"Are you two so blind, as to not see the obvious truth in front of your eyes?" Itachi asked, his voice cold as ice.
"You mean that you..." Tomoe started but stopped mid-sentence.
"Yes, Tomoe. I killed our parents," Itachi admitted.
The way Itachi flat out admitted to the murder of their parents froze both twins in shock and confusion. Tomoe tried to form a sentence but was unable to produce words and just kept stammering.
"Why?" Sasuke asked with a shaking voice and eyes starting to fill with tears, "Why would you do that to our parents?"
"The same reason I killed the rest of our clan," Itachi said before pausing, as if to let the statement sink in, "to test my abilities. To see what my limit was. Although, it seems this test was insufficient for me to truly test my limit."
"It was you? You killed our entire clan?" Tomoe said, having finally found her voice. "You killed our entire clan, just to test your limits?" she asked in disbelief.
"I did indeed."
That sentence froze Tomoe completely as if she had been encased in ice. Her brother, her beloved Ichi-nii, had boldly killed their entire clan just to see if he could. And as if to add insult to injury, he seemed oddly proud of his ability to do so with seemingly little to no difficulties.
Itachi then started walking towards his siblings, sword still in hand. At the sight of Itachi walking towards her with a blood-covered sword in his hand, Tomoe could do nothing but watch as her body was frozen in fear.
As Itachi got closer to them, her arm was suddenly being pulled so hard it felt like her shoulder was going to be pulled from its socket. The pain snapped her out of her fear-induced stupor and almost like a reflex, her body started running, following whoever was dragging her arm. When her brain finally caught up to what was happening, she looked in front of her and saw Sasuke gripping her arm and dragging her along, "Come on, we gotta get out of here!" he yelled back at her sister.
"R-right," Tomoe replied and kept running.
Tomoe and Sasuke kept running towards the main gate of the Uchiha compound, "Come on, we're almost at the main street!" Sasuke said as they ran.
However, as they neared the main street, they were abruptly cut off by Itachi who suddenly appeared in front of them. "You've been watching me for years, and yet you thought you could get away from me that easily?"
The twins stopped running and came to a standstill. As they stopped, Tomoe started to look around for possible escape routes.
"It is useless to try to escape, as you are now you can't hide from my eyes," Itachi said.
"What happened," Tomoe said in a low voice with tears forming in her eyes. "What happened to my Ichi-nii that helped me when I struggled with the clan's jutsu? What happened to my kind brother who helped me stand when I stumbled? What happe-"
"He never existed," Itachi said, cutting her off in the middle of her outburst.
"Wha-"
"Your so-called 'kind Ichi-nii', never existed in the first place. You seem to think that this was a sudden decision of mine," Itachi said. "This has been coming for a long time. I merely acted as the brother you two needed the most at the time in order to measure your abilities and potential."
Tomoe was speechless. Her beloved brother who had helped her so much and helped her get out of slumps had all been a lie? Her beloved brother who had comforted her under the tree when she was a crying mess after failing the fireball jutsu, who had then convinced their mother to help her. As these thoughts raced through her head, another struck her like lightning.
"Why did you convince father to let us go to the Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara New Year festival?" Tomoe asked, wiping the tears from her eyes, as her vision was getting blurry.
"Simple, I needed you two gone for the evening so that I could take care of the rest of the clan in peace. As well as have you form close bonds with them," Itachi explained.
"But why? Why get us out of the way? Why do you care who we are friends with?," Tomoe pressed for answers.
"Because, unlike the rest of our pitiful clan, you two have the potential to match me, to one day stand before me with the same eyes I now possess," as Itachi spoke, as his three tomoe Sharingan changed shape. The usual three tomoe stretched out to the edges of his eyes, forming three spiralling curves around the pupils of his eyes. "You two have the potential to one day wield the Mangekyou Sharingan."
"There's another level beyond the three tomoe Sharingan," Sasuke said astonished.
"You Tomoe were already making good friends, but I needed Sasuke to form bonds as well," Itachi said as his Sharingan reverted to its normal state.
"Why? What does whether or not I have friends have to do with anything," Sasuke said.
"So that you one day can stand before me. You're both weak as you are right now. But you both have the potential to become worth killing, to become a worthy challenge. As you are now, you're worthless. Run away like you've done now. Run and cling to life until you are ready to face me."
There was a pregnant pause after Itachi had spoken, the only sound being the howling of the wind. Then Itachi spoke again, "To face me, you will need the same eyes as me. These eyes can only be achieved by killing your closest friend."
Tomoe's eyes widened in shock. "Killing my closest friend?" Tomoe mumbled, "killing... Ino?" The words had barely left her lips before her vision got blurry once more.
"Go to the Naka shrine, in the right corner in the rear of the main hall, under the seventh tatami mat. Beneath that mat is a tablet that explains the truth about our clan's eyes and their purpose," Itachi explained calmy.
"The... truth?" Sasuke asked. Tomoe, on the other hand, had barely heard a word of what Itachi had said. Her thoughts were still focused on the prospect of having to kill her best friend. These thoughts were interrupted when Itachi spoke in a loud voice.
"So live, live and hate me with all your might. Run so that you may survive another day, let anger and hate fuel your desires. Hate me and realise your potential to become strong enough to face me," Itachi declared as his eyes changed into the Mangekyou Sharingan once more. "And here's a reminder, so that you may never forget. Tsukuyomi."
Tomoe locked eyes with Itachi and saw him crying tears of blood. This was the last thing she saw, as her surroundings turned dark red and the street filled with people. Tomoe looked around and saw the elderly couple that ran the senbei stand. She tried to run over and hug them, glad that they were alive. However, she couldn't move from the spot she stood in. She then tried calling out to them, but her voice wouldn't come out from her throat. As Tomoe started panicking, she heard Itachi's voice echoing around her.
"Welcome to the world of Tsukuyomi. Since you were so curious as to what happened, I will show you."
No sooner had Itachi's voice disappeared, before Tomoe saw the old couple being cut down by Itachi. She tried looking away, but she couldn't move her body.
"No. No. STOP IT! STOP IT!" she screamed, as she saw clan members, old and young, getting cut down one by one.
After what felt like an eternity of watching her family get slaughtered, again and again, Tomoe was back in the real world and fell to her knees, shaking and vomiting. She looked up and saw Itachi standing over her, looking down on her. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness, was Itachi looking at her with a small smirk.
Tomoe woke up screaming and in a cold sweat the next morning, frantically rising in her bed. She looked around her, looking for any trace of Itachi. When she realised he wasn't anywhere to be seen, she calmed down and took in her surroundings. What met her wasn't the street she had lost consciousness in, nor was it the familiar surroundings of her bedroom, but rather a white room she hadn't seen before. She looked down and saw that she wasn't in her futon, but rather a hospital bed.
"Where am I?" she asked to no one in particular.
"You are in Konoha hospital," a voice said.
She turned to look at where the voice came from and saw the third Hokage in the doorway.
"Hokage-sama?" Tomoe asked confused, why was he here, and did he say she was in the hospital? As she finished that thought, she remembered the events of the night before and started rambling, "Hokage-sama, you have to do something, Ichi-nii has gone mad, he-"
"Relax Tomoe you're safe here," Hiruzen interrupted, "I heard what happened," he said with a grim look on his face. "Truly, a terrible incident. A single person wiped out his entire clan the span of one night, except, except for his two younger siblings."
Sasuke! "Sasuke? How is he? Is he ok?" Tomoe asked panicked.
"He is still coming to terms with what happened, but other than that he seems to be fine. He woke up about an hour before you did," Hiruzen answered.
Tomoe breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Sasuke was ok. Having somewhat calmed down, she turned to Hiruzen once more, "What happened? How could did Ichi-nii do this"
"I was hoping you would tell me," Hiruzen replied as he walked in the room and sat down on a chair next to her bed, "I heard Sasuke's side of the story, but he didn't say much other than Itachi had killed your entire clan. Could you tell me more about what happened?"
Tomoe didn't know where to start. One moment she was enjoying a carnival of delights, she was with her friends and brother, they ate, played games, and just enjoyed themselves. The next she stood in front of her older brother, admitting to killing their parents and the rest of their clan, before locking her inside of the worst genjutsu she could possibly imagine, forcing her to watch her clan being murdered again and again for what felt like an eternity.
"I understand this is hard for you, but it is important if you can tell us anything, anything at all, about what happened when you got home," Hiruzen said. When Tomoe still didn't speak, he spoke once more, "Take your time, take all the time you need there's no rush."
After sitting in silence for a while, Tomoe nodded slowly and started speaking, "When Sasuke and I got home after attending the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi New Years festival, we noticed the compound was unusually silent. And as we entered the compound, we noticed a strange smell in the air. As we kept walking, we noticed discarded weaponry and cuts in the walls and the houses. Fearing what had happened, we started running towards our home a-a-and s-s-aw," As Tomoe remembered finding the elderly couple that ran the senbei stand, she started stammering, shaking, and breathing heavily.
Hiruzen put a hand on her shoulder and said in a calming tone, "Shh, relax Tomoe. You're safe now. Take it slowly, we can take our time."
Tomoe nodded and started to try to control her breathing. After about five minutes, Tomoe had calmed down enough to start talking again. She swallowed a lump in her throat and continued, "We came across the elderly couple that ran the Uchiha senbei stand. We saw them lying on the ground in a pool of blood. At that point, we realised what the strange smell was, and ran as fast as we could straight to our home. When we reached our home, it felt as if it somehow got even quieter, even though that the only sound we had been able to hear so far was ourselves. We entered our house and started looking around, being as quiet as we could. After some time, we heard a loud thud from our father's study and we went to investigate," Tomoe stopped speaking once more as tears started forming in her eyes and she started sniffling.
As he saw the tears forming in her eyes, Hiruzen sat and waited patiently in silence, until Tomoe was ready to keep going.
"S-sorry about that Hokage-sama," Tomoe said wiping her eyes.
"Think nothing of it Tomoe-chan. I know it is a sensitive topic, take all the time you need. I will be right here when you're ready," Hiruzen replied kindly.
"Thank you, sir."
Once she was ready, Tomoe continued, "As we entered our father's study, we saw father and mother's body lying in the middle of the room, with Itachi standing over their body."
Hiruzen made a small note that she had stopped calling him "Ichi-nii" as she had previously during their conversation.
"As he admitted that he was the one who had killed our clan, my body just froze up, I couldn't move. Then as he started walking towards us, Sasuke grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the house and towards the compound gate. As we got closer to the gate, Itachi suddenly appeared in front of us and said that the reason why he had killed our entire clan was to test his abilities and nothing more. And that the way he had acted until now was nothing more than an act."
"To test his abilities you say? I knew Itachi was a gifted young man, but to go so far, just to see if he could," Hiruzen said taken aback, "I fear we may have greatly underestimated the boy's abilities," he said grimly. "I'm sorry for interrupting, please keep going."
"I... I don't have much more to say. After he said that, my mind kinda went numb and blanked out."
"But why did he spare you two? Did he say anything about that?" Hiruzen inquired.
"He... he said something about our potential, and how we had the potential to be a challenge to him," Tomoe answered.
"I see," Hiruzen said nodding. "One more thing Tomoe, then I shall let you get some, what I imagine is, much-needed rest, was he injured?"
"From what I could see no he wasn't. I-i-it was kinda dark and my eyes kept getting blurry so it was hard to see. Even after I wiped my tears, my eyesight was still blurry."
This seemed to catch Hiruzen's attention, however, "Really?"
"Yeah, after he admitted that everything had been an act, the tears wouldn't stop so it was hard to see anything. And yet..." she trailed off.
"And yet?" Hiruzen inquired.
"And yet as I passed out, I saw him looking down at me smirking as clear as day."
At this, Hiruzen raised an eyebrow that went unseen by Tomoe, "I see. Well, I have taken enough of your time. Goodbye Tomoe-chan, thank you for telling me all this," Hiruzen said as he got up from where he was sitting and walked towards the door.
"Wait, Hokage-sama one more thing," Tomoe called out as he was leaving.
"Yes?"
"Can I see my brother?" she asked.
"Of course you can if you feel well enough to stand up on your own. Would you like me to lead you to his room?" Hiruzen offered.
"Yes please," Tomoe said, accepting his offer and got out of the bed and followed Hiruzen.
AN: Took a bit longer to come out and is a bit shorter than planned cause fun fact, I don't know how to write genocide, murder, or anything that would give an eerie feeling. Plus, school started up again, so there's that to take care of.