Chapter 18. Loyalties.
It was nothing like the Nine Tail's attack all those years ago. There was no evil, powerful feeling in the air; no tingling of the senses before the tragedy, at least not mine. Even if Konohagakure wasn't mostly wiped out, even if most of its shinobi and population would survive the night, the Uchiha massacre was as harsh a tragedy as the Kyūbi attack had been, if not harsher. At the time, my grief and sorrow for Shisui's death had given me the rock bottom from which I couldn't sink any further. But still the assassination of my entire clan was one terrible beating to endure. It was luck, or maybe fate that I wasn't in the compound that night. We had finished packing up all of my possessions that very evening, and Tsume had decided to have me settle in with them earlier so that I wouldn't have to spend the night alone in a home empty not only of furniture but of family as well.
Hana and I had trained in the garden until dinner was done, while little Kiba looked on with a wide smile and longing in his eyes. The Haimaru brothers battled in the veranda for the last piece of stake while Kuromaru supervised with eyes heavy from sleep. In the kitchen, Tsume was cooking something that smelled a lot like meat while she wore a pink apron with a dog on it that didn't really match her wild appearance. Everything seemed at ease, just like any peaceful night in Konoha after most shops have closed for the day and everyone had gone home. Everything seemed to be at peace, in order. But that was the exact moment when Kuromaru, the Haimaru brothers, and even Tsume, raised their heads in unison and sharply turned them to the west. A second later, a long, distant howl was heard and everyone sprung into motion.
"Pups, inside. Now. Kuromaru, perimeter check, and get me Akira." Barked Tsume, as she shoved her apron on the kitchen table, and started closing and securing every entrance to the house.
I didn't dare disobey the woman that had given me nothing but kindness for years, and who was in fact my senior shinobi as well; so I followed Hana and Kiba in what looked like a rehearsed emergency procedure. We went into the kitchen and closed the doors, trapping them all just like Tsume had done, and went to grab the emergency weapons hidden in the room. In the meantime, Kiba had removed part of the hardwood floor and was opening a trapdoor that lead to what I assumed was a panic room. Hana, on the other hand, had taken a pouch from beneath the counter and given it to her brother along with one of her kunai, before she closed the trapdoor and placed the wood planks back on their place, trapping Kiba inside.
"Still amazes me how much people underestimate the Inuzuka," I said as I finished trapping the window, and wet to huddle up next to my friend. "I don't think anyone in the Uchiha compound has a panic room. They are too proud for that. But back to the situation; we need an update."
As I talked, Hana had retrieved all of the weapons available and was organizing them in between the both of us, getting everything ready for assessment and redistribution.
"We also need a plan."
"My sense of smell isn't as good or as far reaching as Mum's, but there is blood, too much for it to be a coincidence. And it isn't far." Said my friend as she tied her hair back and wrapped a washcloth around her left forearm. We had no armor with us, so we would have to improvise.
"Okay, so there's a lot of enemies, or just a very skilled few. We can put the Haimaru brothers on a triangular formation around you with me on point. I'm more combat oriented than you four anyway, and you are as close as we can get to a medic right now." I said as I tried to outline a plan in case we needed to engage. "I would have to receive assistance from the brothers should the opponent be Chūnin level or higher."
As I finished speaking, I felt another presence in the house, which shouldn't have been there. Tsume had left with Kuromaru, and there wasn't supposed to be anyone in. Hana must have noticed this as well, because she instantly scrambled to retrieve the first aid kit from one of the lower cabinets. The smell of blood was strong in the air now, and I tensed as a single senbon was wedged in between the door and the frame and started to cut through the trap wire.
I grabbed two kunai and loosened my stance, preparing to bolt as soon as the door opened. The three pups behind me started to growl as the fur on their backs rose in challenge. Eight kunai, six shuriken, no wire, no bombs, and very few senbon. That was all I had. I would have to force them into close combat and avoid as much damage as possible. It wouldn't be easy to keep Hana out of the fight, but I would have to manage. Large Jutsu were out as well, not only could I seriously damage the house, but the people in it; or under it. Too many possibilities ran through my mind as I prepared for the incoming fight. But the second the door opened, I froze.
"You could have knocked, you know? I was ready to chop you to pieces, you klutz." I sighed, smiling as my stance dissolved and I lowered my weapons. "Is the situation contained? We never got an update, and there must be someone who needs back up if Hana's nose is right."
Itachi didn't speak. He didn't even move, he just stood there looking at me covered in blood I knew not to be his own and studied me with those scarlet eyes that looked demonic to some, but were oh so beautiful to me. But as seconds went by and my friend didn't move or speak, my smile faded. Who had been killed? His parents? Sasuke? What had shocked him so bad he couldn't even give a status report? I moved to brush the hair away from his eyes and frowned as I saw his hitai ate. I frowned and looked into his eyes, taking my hand back and slowly taking a step back.
A single straight line had been drawn horizontally across his Konohagakure insignia. The mark of a rouge.
"I'm about to put you through a lot of pain, Akane. I hope someday Shisui and you can forgive me."
I took another step back, and reached for my pouch in an attempt to block anything my friend, my best friend, could throw at me. But I was a second too late. His katana tore through the skin on my gut and through me only to come out of my back. And as he pulled it out and I fell, he put me in another genjutsu I wouldn't want to leave.
Inuzuka Hana POV
The sigh of relief that left my lungs as Itachi's face appeared through the door frame could have been heard from the other end of Konoha. But as soon as I saw his appearance, I knew something was not right. Akane, caught on soon after when our friend didn't give us an instant report of the situation outside. Something had happened. But I never expected the series of events that followed. I didn't expect Itachi's Hitai-ate to be crossed out. I never expected Itachi's blood to be that of our comrades, his comrades. I never expected him to put a katana through is own best friend's gut.
I was screaming before I knew what else to do. All of my shuriken and then two kunai flew into the air and towards the boy whom we had spent so much time with. But none hit the target. For some reason unknown to me, though, the projectiles never returned the way they came, Itachi did not once retaliate. He blocked the weapons thrown at him and left the same way he came in. I didn't have the time nor the strength to go after him and win; I also had a life to save, which was no small feat with my lack of experience. Once I took his first step out of the room, I scrambled towards my bleeding friend, dragging the first aid kit behind me.
There was blood everywhere, slowly increasing the size of the pool beneath Akane. Her eyes very much open, but unseeing; her mouth open and her breathing steady but not making a sound. She was under a genjutsu, as if making her a human brochette hadn't been enough, Itachi had decided she needed to suffer even further. I started the seals for one of the most basic medical jutsu I had been taught at the vet clinic and as soon as my hands lit up with sterilized chakra, I put them on my friend's abdomen. The only thing I knew for certain in that moment, was that even if I was no medic, I would be damned if I let Akane die in my hands.
"Go get someone, a field medic if possible." I told one of my pups, who had frozen in place at the sight before them just as I had. "The two of you stand guard. Kill anyone that looks suspicious. I don't care if they are Leaf. No one comes near us if they aren't mom or a medic."
Looking back, that was the moment everything changed for me, for us four. The fact that you couldn't trust even your own people was a very rude wake up call. That was the moment everything I had been told as a shinobi, as a member of the Inuzuka clan, every definition of loyalty I had, had definitely been crushed to pieces. A comrade, a classmate, a friend had attempted to kill my best friend and had already killed Kami knows how many others. A member of Konohagakure no Sato's elite forces had turned and gone on a merciless killing spree without reason. Had my rage at the moment not been as prominent as it was, I would have questioned all of the above, but considering the situation at hand, I believe I had enough reason not to care.
I continued to evaluate the damage before I managed to stop the bleeding. There were two open wounds; one on the front and one in her back. The lever of my iryo-ninjutsu wasn't high enough, so I would have to close it by hand once I managed to stop the bleeding and hope to Kami there wasn't any internal bleeding. Besides it didn't look like the katana had torn any vital organs, thankfully, so all I had to do would be stabilizing her until help arrived with the pup hopefully.
Yeah, easier said than done.
I grabbed the supplies from the kit with bloody hands and got to work. I'd treat the wound on her abdomen first, then her back, and I'd diffuse the genjutsu last. There would be no genjutsu to break if she bled to death after all. She had lost too much already. Two growls brought me out of my musings. And when I raised my head, expecting to see green vests and blue pants, all hope left me. Standing there with full body armor on, were four masked figures; all wearing the same uniform Itachi had. I returned my attention to the wound I was attempting to close and blatantly ignored the holes those four pairs of eyes were boring into my skull.
"Report." Said one with silver hair after a few seconds went by in silence.
"Nobody steps near without getting their legs ripped to shreds by those two," I said nodding towards the pups. "End of report."
The words were spat through my gritted teeth with enough force to be not only disrespectful, but also enough to warrant a court martial.
"Have you never seen ANBU, Kid? We're Konoha corps." Said the man back with curiosity laced in his tone, and seemingly with no malice.
"Yeah, but last time I saw one, my best friend got stabbed and put in a genjutsu induced coma for no apparent reason," I continued as I tried to sew the gap in Akane's belly shut. "So forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical."
The shinobi looked at each other in common understanding and when they turned to address me once again, I saw one of them leaving through the corner of my eye.
"You are training an ANBU trainee, hand her over, her treatment and medical record are only confidential to all except ANBU and the Hokage himself." Pitched in the one with the Cat mask.
The two pups separating us growled deeper and crouched down ready to pounce at the least sign of movement.
"Go ahead and try, but I'm sure you know the Inuzuka ninken's reputation precedes them. Don't say you weren't warned."
But the situation was not given a chance to escalate any further. It was then that footsteps were heard down the hall and making their way to the kitchen at full speed; and a few seconds later, Mom, Kuromaru, Akira, and Kosuke appeared at the doorway. Both ninken growled deeply as they saw the defensive position the pups were in, and I must say that if I had been on the receiving end of that sound, I would have hightailed it out of there without a thought. The adult canines moved to back up the pups and block Akane and me from the other shinobi's view.
"what the hell is going on here?" said my mom as Akira-sensei rushed to my side to help me deal with Akane's wounds.
"Your daughter said they had been attacked by one of ours, she refuses to let us assist our subordinate." Said the cat-man.
"She's only your subordinate when she wears the mask, Cat Taicho, do not forget that." Growled Akira-sensei as he helped me turn Akane to try and treat the wound on her back.
"All ANBU Opp-"
The third man, with the Falcon mask, stopped talking as soon as my mom raised her hand.
"Pup, report." She ordered.
I straightened up and let Akira-sensei deal with the rest of the treatment as I looked up at the Jonin in front of me and gave my report.
"We went on lockdown as instructed before Inuzuka Tsume left the premises. the room had been secured and all procedures had been successfully carried out. But the enemy disarmed the traps and easily snuck in from the door behind you. The Identity of the enemy made us not identify him as such, we were careless. He tried to kill Uchiha Akane, he left before he could see his objective through." I said as I tried to clean my best friend's blood from my hands and looked down in shame and sadness at what I was about to say. "The suspect was positively identified as Uchiha Itachi by both Uchiha Akane and myself."
There was a stunned silence that lasted more than it should have, and then, mom asked again.
"And the Kid?"
"In the panic room."
By this point, the ANBU operatives that remained in the room looked on to the scene with such stillness that their presence went unnoticed by a few moments.
"You are missing a partner." She noted.
"I sent him for help, he should be back soon."
For some reason, the exchange served as a signal that it was okay to stand down. The ninken, both adults and pups, left their stances and returned to their respective partners' sides. Both my pups laid their heads on my lap where my hands were furiously attempting to rub the blood away.
Akira-sensei managed to stabilize Akane-chan enough to allow her transportation to ANBU HQ, where he admitted would get better treatment than he could give. When everyone had left, we got Kiba out of the panic room and started to disarm the traps around the room. It was all so domestic, so ordinary, like we had just finished an emergency drill, it was all so normal that whenever I looked at my hands and remembered what had happened, it felt somewhat unreal.
But it was very real, and the final report on the situation that came in the form of a hawk carrying a scroll, it all sunk in in the worst way possible. The situation had been contained, yes, but at the expense of one of Konohagakure's most powerful clans. Uchiha Itachi had killed his entire clan and the only survivors had been his younger brother, Sasuke, and Akane.
That was the day I realized, I would serve the village to the best of my abilities, with the unhesitating will and cooperation I had shown until now. But I would not go through this again. The safety of my loved ones would always be my first priority. I would not let fate decide my future, our future. I would make it. And should there ever come a day when I had to choose between nation and family, I would show just where Inuzuka Hana's loyalties lie.