Chapter 8 - Starting anew

Tomoe walked behind the Hokage in silence as they made their way towards the room Sasuke was resting didn't know much about Hiruzen Sarutobi or what kind of person he was. She knew that he was the third Hokage and was known as the "The Professor" for some reason, but besides that, she knew nothing. She had overheard her father and mother talking about him, but that was mostly her father being annoyed over something the Hokage didn't allow.

But before she could continue that train of thought, she saw multiple nurses running around the hallway in what seemed like a mix of confusion and panic.

"Yui-san, what's going on here?" Hiruzen asked one of the nurses as she ran by.

"Ah Hokage-sama, Sasuke Uchiha is missing from his ro-" she started but stopped when she saw Tomoe standing behind Hiruzen.

"Sasuke's... missing?" Tomoe asked nervously.

"No need to worry Tomoe-chan, I'm sure he just went to the bathroom," Hiruzen assured Tomoe.

That didn't help Tomoe calm down as the nurses were still running around in confusion, especially not considering what happened last night. Filled with worry, Tomoe took off running.

"Ah, Uchiha-sama," one of the Yui called out as she was about to follow and stop her.

"Let her go, Yui-san. She seems to know where she's going," Hiruzen said, putting a hand on her shoulder and stopping the nurse from following her.

"But Hokage-sama, it is not safe for them, the-" the nurse began.

"Don't worry, I have an ANBU squad shadowing them. Should anything happen, they'll intervene and inform me immediately," Hiruzen explained.

Tomoe ran towards the Uchiha compound as fast as she could. It was the only place she could think of where Sasuke would go. She was going to go there once she had the chance anyways. She needed to know if the memories in her head were real or if they were just from a terrible nightmare.

As she ran, the memories from that night kept running through her head. Some of them were clear as day. She could vividly remember Itachi admitting to slaughtering their clan. However, other memories were hazy and unclear, such as what happened after Itachi had cut her and Sasuke off when they were trying to run away. She didn't want to believe that it had happened, but her waking up in the hospital and the Hokage's reaction both told her that it was true, but she still needed to see for herself.

Tomoe arrived at the Uchiha compound and saw it looked like it had done in her nightmare. Weapons were scattered throughout the clan compound, the walls were sprayed with blood, and a pungent smell of blood clung to the air.

As she ran past the damaged houses and empty streets, Tomoe noticed that while there was blood and scattered weapons everywhere, there was not a single body to be seen. It felt strange, as she remembered multiple bodies lying around the living quarters.

She kept running throughout the compound while looking for any sign of life until she reached her home. If Sasuke was anywhere, it had to be here. He had to be.

She entered the house and headed straight towards her father's study. As she opened the door, she was met by a sniffling Sasuke sitting in a pool of blood in the middle of the room, seemingly clutching something to his chest. She breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that he was alive. As she walked closer to Sasuke, she saw what he held in his hands.

He held a blood-covered photo of the two of them together with their parents and Itachi relaxing by the lake. When she saw Sasuke sitting in a pool of dried blood, crying while holding one of their few photos as a family, reality set in. This was the proof she needed but didn't want. This was the proof that it hadn't been a nightmare. Itachi really had slaughtered their entire family. Finally realising this, her legs gave out, and she collapsed next to Sasuke and started crying as well.

When he saw his sister collapse into tears next to him, Sasuke couldn't hold himself back anymore and let the tears he had been trying hard to hold in flow freely.

None of them said a word; they just sat in each other's company and cried, lamenting the loss of their family.

Several hours later, the twins' tears had somewhat stopped, and they had gone from sobbing to sniffling.

"So it really is true," Tomoe said between sniffles, "He really did kill them all."

"Yeah... he did..." Sasuke replied, sniffling.

Tomoe looked at Sasuke and asked, "What do we do now?".

However, Sasuke didn't respond to her question. He just sat there sniffling and wiping his eyes.

"Sasuke?" she asked once more.

"I'm going to kill him," Sasuke suddenly said, "I'm going to make him pay for all the lives he took," he said.

Tomoe's eyes widened in surprise. Of all things she had thought Sasuke would say, this was one of the last things she had considered. She had adored and loved Itachi, but Sasuke idolised the man more than anyone. To him, Itachi was better than even the Hokage, so hearing him say something like this came as a shock.

"What?" she asked in disbelief.

"I said I'm going to go after him, and I am going to kill him," Sasuke said, his voice shaking in anger.

Tomoe was silent for a moment before responding, "No... no, I won't let you go after him."

Sasuke turned to look at Tomoe in betrayal, "How can you say that? After everything he's done. He killed our parents, our ENTIRE clan. How can you still defend him after that? You heard what he said; we were never more than just a means to an end, a means for him to grow stronger. He never cared about us; it was all an act," Sasuke said in anger. "It was all an act," he repeated, tears starting to form in his eyes once more.

Tomoe shook her head slowly, "I wasn't done," Tomoe said calmly. "I won't let you go after him alone. As you are now, you don't stand a chance against him. Neither of us does. You saw how easily he caught up with us," Tomoe said before pausing. "Don't go after him on your own. I won't stop you from killing him, but I will stop you from going after him on your own and throwing your life away like that."

"What do you suggest I do then?" Sasuke snapped, "I won't sit still and do nothing while he's still out there! I can't sit still and do nothing." Sasuke paused, "I know I'm no match for him as I am now, but I don't know what else to do," Sasuke said, sounding dejected.

Tomoe grabbed Sasuke's shoulders and looked him in the eyes, "Get stronger, that's what we are going to do. We're going to get stronger, and then we take him down together and prove him wrong. Prove to him that we can get strong enough without killing anyone close to us. Prove to him that the path he chose was wrong and that we don't need the same eyes as him to beat him. As long as we do it together," Tomoe said, her eyes glistening with tears.

Sasuke seemed to think for a moment before conceding, "Fine, you win."

A small smile formed on Tomoe's face as it lit up in relief. She then pulled Sasuke in for an intense hug, "I won't lose you too," she thought as Sasuke returned the hug.

The week following the massacre felt like an eternity for Tomoe. She and Sasuke had been moved to a small apartment near the Hokage tower. At least until the Uchiha compound had been cleaned. Not that the location mattered, as they barely left the apartment. All they needed was provided for them, food, clothes, and other basic necessities, so they didn't have to worry about going out and getting any of it. Which led to them spending most of the time inside, mourning and in sorrow over their loss.

Three days after the massacre, a mass funeral ceremony was held for all the slaughtered members of the Uchiha clan. Overall, it was a quiet affair. Hiruzen made a short speech and said a few comforting words to the twins, but ultimately it was just Tomoe and Sasuke crying at the loss of their clan.

Two days after the funeral, the twins were visited by the Hokage. He knocked on the door and waited. After hearing some rustling from inside, he was met by a tired-looking and red-eyed Tomoe opening the door.

"Hello, Hokage-sama," she said, "what has brought you here today?" she asked.

"Hello Tomoe-chan," Hiruzen replied, "It's a solemn visit, I'm afraid. Sadly, I am here to bring you the ashes of your parents," Hiruzen continued with a gloomy expression and pulled out two urns about the same size as Tomoe's head.

Tomoe's eyes widened as she let out a small, "Oh, I see."

"Your father and I might not always have seen eye to eye. But, he did tell me of some of your traditions. For instance, placing the ashes of the clan head and his wife in one of your temples," Hiruzen explained.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Tomoe said and took the urns from the Hokage and held them tight.

"Think nothing of it it was the least I could do," Hirzuen said. Seeing Tomoe clutching the urns, he continued, "I shall take my leave now. Please do not hesitate if there's anything you need."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Tomoe said and bowed in appreciation, "Really, thank you for returning our parents to us."

"You are welcome," Hiruzen said, turning to leave before stopping, "Oh yes, one more thing. The Uchiha compound should be ready for you to return to in a few days, should you wish to do so."

Tomoe nodded, "Thank you for telling me."

With that, Hiruzen went on his way.

Tomoe walked back to the living room of the apartment and was met by a tired-looking Sasuke as he came out from their bedroom.

"Who was it?" he asked, yawning.

"The Hokage," Tomoe answered, "He brought us mother and father's ashes."

"Oh."

"He also mentioned something about an Uchiha tradition of placing the ashes of the clan head in one of our temples. He also said that the compound should be ready for us to move back into in a few days, should we wish."

This seemed to spark a reaction in Sasuke, who suddenly looked a lot more awake, "Then we're going to the Naka shrine as soon as we can."

"The Naka shrine? Why that shrine in particular?" Tomoe asked.

Sasuke looked at his sister in disbelief, "Don't you remember what Itachi told us about that shrine?"

Tomoe thought hard before answering, "No... I don't. I remember most of the night, but... after he told us how to get the same eyes as him, it gets hazy," she admitted.

Sasuke nodded and started explaining, "He said something about how the truth and purpose about our eyes could be found there."

"The truth and purpose about our eyes?" Tomoe said in confusion, "What did he mean by that?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out when we get there."

Having been allowed to return to their clan compound, the twins took their parents' urns and returned to the Uchiha compound. When they arrived, they noticed that most of the buildings still had cuts and marks in them, but the weapons and blood had been removed.

The twins walked through the quiet, empty, and scarred streets of the Uchiha compound until they arrived at the Naka shrine. They entered the shrine and headed to the shrine's main hall. Once inside, they saw that the back wall was filled with urns similar to the ones they were currently holding. They also noticed an altar near the back. The twins steeled their resolves and made their way towards the altar, and placed their parents' ashes on the altar.

Once they had paid their respects to them and their ancestors, they started looking for the tatami mat Itachi had mentioned.

"You said the seventh tatami mat from the right, right?" Tomoe said, sniffling after they left their parents' urns.

"Yeah," Sasuke replied, rubbing his eyes as he walked to the rear right corner and started counting mats.

Upon reaching the seventh mat, he bent down and removed the tatami mat and revealed a hidden stone slab with a three tomoe Sharingan in the middle, with markings going from the Sharingan around the sides of the slab. As he removed the mat, Tomoe walked over and looked at the stone slab.

"Well, think we found it," Tomoe said nervously.

"Yeah, now the question is, how do we open it? Itachi said nothing about that," Sasuke pondered.

They started investigating the stone slab to find out how to move it. While inspecting the slab, Tomoe accidentally put her hand in the middle of the Sharingan and immediately felt a sharp pain in her hand.

"Ouch, what was that," she said as she pulled her hand back, clutching it. She looked at her hand and saw she was bleeding from her palm.

"Are you ok? What happened?" Sasuke asked, sounding worried.

"I- I- I don't know. I just placed my hand on the Sharingan and, then it... stung me? I think? It's not bad; it just stings a little," Tomoe said.

Suddenly, they heard a loud crack coming from the stone slab and saw it had split cleanly down the middle. It then started rumbling and slowly parted itself, revealing a narrow staircase leading down.

"It opened? With my blood?" Tomoe said uncomfortably. She then took off her sash and used it as a makeshift band-aid on her wound.

"Would seem so," Sasuke said. "Wonder why it opened with your blood. Maybe it's to keep whatever's down there a secret from non-Uchiha?"

"Possibly, but we can think about that later. We got it open."

"Yeah, let's go down there and see what Itachi meant by 'The truth and purpose of our clan's eyes'," Sasuke said and started walking down the narrow hallway with Tomoe following shortly after.

As they reached a small hallway at the end of the staircase, they could barely make out a dark room at the end. But when the twins entered the room, two braziers at the end of the room and candles held in sconces adorning the walls flared to life, lighting up the room.

Tomoe took a second to look around the room before noticing a podium with a large stone tablet with an inscription between the two braziers. What was strange, however, was that she couldn't read the text on the stone tablet. It was as if it was written in another language.

Sasuke, having also noticed the stone tablet, walked over and stood in front of it.

"What's going on here?" Sasuke said in a mix of confusion and frustration, "Why can't I read the text?"

"I don't know," Tomoe chimed in, "I recognise the symbols, yet I can't understand them," she said in bewilderment.

"Why would he tell us to go down here if we can't even read it," Sasuke yelled out loud in frustration as he kicked the wall and started pacing around the room.

After Sasuke kicked the wall, Tomoe heard a thud coming from the stone tablet. She looked over and saw a scroll had fallen down from Sasuke kicking the wall. Curious about the scroll, Tomoe walked over and picked up and read the scroll.

"The eyes of the Uchiha reveal the truth," the scroll read.

"The eyes of the Uchiha reveal the truth?" she read out loud.

"Did you say something?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, hey did you see this scroll before?" she asked, pointing at the scroll.

"No, Where did it come from? What does it say?"

"I don't know where it came from, but it reads: "The eyes of the Uchiha reveal the truth"."

"What is that supposed to mean? If our eyes reveal the truth, shouldn't we be able to read the stone?" Sasuke asked in exasperation.

The twins thought for a while before Tomoe spoke in realisation, "Not yet. Our eyes don't reveal the truth yet."

"What do you mean not ye-" Sasuke started before stopping, "Of course, we can only read the tablet with the Sharingan," he said, realisation dawning on him. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"So, what do we do now?" Tomoe asked, "We can't read the tablet, not yet at least."

"We get stronger, that's, what we're gonna do," Sasuke replied, "Strong enough to kill Itachi."

"Sounds like a plan," Tomoe said before asking, "So... where do we go now? To the apartment or...?"

"We go home," Sasuke answered and began walking up the staircase to return to their home.

For the first time in about a week, Tomoe and Sasuke sat foot in their family home once more. Unlike most of the houses in the clan compound, their house hadn't suffered any exterior damages.

The twins wandered around the house to see if anything inside had been damaged. But the inside of the house was as immaculate as ever. The only room they avoided was their father's study. Neither of the twins wanted to set foot in that room again. They were slowly coming to terms with what had happened but, the sight of their parents' bodies would never leave them, and they didn't need an unnecessary reminder.

"Everything looks like it used to," Tomoe noted as they walked around the house, "What should we do first?" she asked.

"Get stronger," Sasuke answered.

"I know that, but how? You know we both hit a wall. We can keep doing the same exercises, but... that won't make us as strong as we need to be," Tomoe replied.

Sasuke thought before answering, "Didn't we have a library somewhere?"

"I'm not sure, but why do we need a library?" Tomoe asked, confused.

"Because all of the Uchiha exercises, jutsu, kata, everything should be stored somewhere. There should be plenty of scrolls somewhere with all the information we need."

Tomoe's eyes widened in realisation, "You're right; it should be written down somewhere."

"The question is, where are the scrolls stored?"

They thought about where the scrolls would be stored. Tomoe's first thought was that the taijutsu scrolls would have been stored near the training grounds, but the only building in that part of the compound is the dojo used for indoor sparring. Plus, it would make the most sense if the scrolls were stored together, so they didn't have to walk the entire compound to find more than one type of exercise scroll. She then thought of the chakra training grounds and the lake, but the only building close to that area was their own home. Then a thought struck Tomoe like a bolt of lightning.

"I- I think I know where the scrolls are," she said in a low voice, "but you won't like it."

"What do you mean? Where are they?" Sasuke asked eagerly.

Tomoe swallowed the lump in her throat before answering, "Father's study."

Sasuke's eagerness disappeared almost as soon as the words left her lips; he really didn't want to be reminded of that scene again. "Maybe they are stored somewhere else. Let's keep think-" Sasuke said, trying to rationalise avoid that room.

"We both know that's where they would be," Tomoe said, cutting him off. "It would make the most sense for the clan head to oversee the more advanced scrolls. We already got the hang of the basic scrolls; it's the only place they would be stored," Tomoe explained.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable at the thought of entering their father's study again. "I don't like it any more than you do, but you have to admit it makes the most sense for them to be in there," Tomoe insisted.

Sasuke thought for a moment before relenting, "Alright, fine, you win. We'll check father's study." And with that, the twins headed towards their father's study once more.

As they stood in front of their father's study, Tomoe had flashbacks to that night. She knew it had happened and that it was in the past she had had the last week to come to terms with that. Yet, Tomoe still feared that the door would open and she would see the bodies of her parents lying on the floor once more. She grabbed the door handle and was surprised to see that Sasuke grabbed the door handle with her. The twins looked at each other, nodded, and opened the door together.

As the door swung open, it revealed an empty floor. Tomoe knew that the floor would be barren, yet she hadn't been able to couldn't shake the feeling of dread that it wouldn't be. It gave her a strange mix of relief and sorrow.

She was broken out of her stupor by Sasuke walking past her and into the room. She looked on in surprise at how he brazenly walked into the room. As if noticing her staring, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder and said, "Let's just get the scrolls quickly, then we can go through them afterwards."

Tomoe realised he wanted to be there as little as possible as well. And rather than unnecessarily prolonging it, he tried to get it done as quickly as possible. Tomoe smacked her cheeks and walked up to the bookshelves as well to search for the scrolls. They searched the bookshelves for any scroll they could find and brought them all down to the living room to go through them one by one to see what they were about.

Having moved all the scrolls from their father's study to the living room, Tomoe and Sasuke were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of scrolls.

"Why did it look like there were fewer when they were on the shelves?" Tomoe asked while looking around the living room that was now practically filled with scrolls.

"No idea, but we have a lot to go through so, we better get started," Sasuke replied as he sat down, picked up a scroll, and started reading. Tomoe nodded and picked up a scroll, and began reading herself.

Omake - Tales of a kitchen

Several hours later, Tomoe fell on her back in exasperation and breathed a heavy sigh. "We've gone through less than half of these scrolls, and we've barely found any scrolls relating to taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, anything. Everything is just boring clan stuff like finances or politics."

"Keep looking; we need to find all the training scrolls possible," replied an equally annoyed Sasuke.

Tomoe continued to lie on her back for a while before she felt her stomach rumbling, "I'm hungry; we haven't eaten anything since we left the Hokage tower."

Sasuke was about to rebuke her once more and tell her to keep searching when his own stomach betrayed him and rumbled at the mention of food.

Hearing her brother's stomach agree with her, Tomoe smiled, "Let's take a break and get some food. It'll be good for us to give our brains some rest as well."

Sasuke huffed but relented, "Fine, a small break with some food, and then we go back to combing through the scrolls."

"Deal," Tomoe said and rose from the floor and stretched. "Been a while since I sat still for that long," she noted, "not since we started our chakra control lessons, I think."

"Sounds about right," Sasuke said as he rose and stretched.

Once they both had stood up and stretched, they walked to the kitchen and took stock of what little food they had. Most of the food had been spoiled, but there were still some leftover rice, eggs, and vegetables.

The twins looked at what they had before they came to a sudden realisation; neither of the two knew how to cook.

"So, erhm, what do we do with this?" Tomoe asked.

"I don't know; I've never cooked before," Sasuke replied.

"Neither have I."

"I thought you learned to cook in those kunoichi lessons?"

"I learned how to make tea, but not how to cook." There was a brief pause before Tomoe spoke again, "So what do we do know?"

"I don't know, let's just go and buy some food," Sasuke said.

"Don't we need money for that?" Tomoe asked.

"Yeah, so?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We don't have any money."

"Of course we do; we are the Uchiha."

"I know that, but I meant WE don't have money, do we?" That caused Sasuke to stop and turn to look at her, so Tomoe continued, "I know the clan has money, but we don't. It used to be... father and mother who took care of those things, but we're going to have to do it now."

Sasuke stepped back and stared at Tomoe as if she had slapped him.

"We need to do it all, now," she said.

Sasuke took a few moments to compose himself before responding, "You're right. We have to pick up where they left off. One step at a time."

"One step at a time," Tomoe agreed and pulled Sasuke in for a hug, who returned the hug. "And the first step is learning how to cook, it seems," Tomoe said as they pulled apart.

"So, where do we start?" Sasuke asked.

Tomoe looked over what food they had, "We have a few bags of rice, so let's start with that. There should be a pot somewhere around here."

"I'm gonna go look for a pan to try to fry some eggs," Sasuke said and went of to search for pan.

*30 minutes later*

Tomoe and Sasuke looked at what was supposed to be food on the table in the living room. They had somehow managed to make rice that was both soggy and hard at the same time, the vegetables were undercooked, and what was supposed to be fried eggs were now some burnt scrambled eggs.

"Well... it's a start," Tomoe said, looking nervously at the mess they had made.

"If you can call it that," Sasuke retorted, "How do you make rice that is soggy and hard at the same time?"

"How did YOU manage to screw up fried eggs?"

"Give me a break; I've never used a pan before."

"Well, I've never used a pot before."

"You know, never mind all that. Let's just eat... whatever this is," Sasuke said and walked over to the kitchen to fetch himself a plate.

Tomoe nodded, fetched some plates and cutlery from the kitchen, sat down at the table, and started eating.

After having taken a few bites, Tomoe suddenly started giggling.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked.

"This... tastes really terrible," Tomoe said between giggles.

"Yeah, so?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"I mean, it tastes REALLY awful," Tomoe said, now full-on laughing, "It's actually amazing how bad it tastes."

Sasuke looked at his food and let out a small chuckle, "Yeah, it really does taste awful. But, it's a start."

"The first step."

"The first of many," Sasuke said with a determined look.

Tomoe nodded and rose from the table, "I'll go make some tea. Maybe that can make up for the taste of the food," she said as she made her way towards the kitchen.

"I think you're overestimating your tea-making skills if you think it can make up for this mess," Sasuke said with a chuckle.

"Hey!" Tomoe yelled from the kitchen.

( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡) _

AN: Sasuke was still as attached to Itachi as in canon, but since this story doesn't focus on him, I didn't write those parts. I see no reason to write an event if it is just going to play out exactly like canon. Plus, Sasuke ain't the main character here.

AN2: I don't really do grief, so it was kinda hard to write this and make it seem believable.

AN3: In canon, there was something about a seal blocking the entrance to the Uchiha meeting place that required a specific jutsu or something to open. But considering there was no indication about this until VERY late in the series, I've changed it to blood seal. Plus, I couldn't find a way to have Itachi explaining how to use the jutsu that opens the way to the Uchiha meeting place while making the conversation seem natural. So, a blood seal like this seemed like a good compromise and could be unlocked by accident. And we see Sasuke down there, so evidently, he got down there somehow, even if the seal was another afterthought by Kishimoto.

AN4: As previously said, omake's are added in a separate story collection as well