"Do you have any idea who would want to kidnap Aiko-chan?" Shisui asked as he and Itachi dashed through the village in search of clues.
"No..." Itachi replied, obviously aggravated, "She did mention to me before that she is afraid of Shimura Danzō, because of a conflict between him and her parents, but it's hard to imagine that he would've ordered a subordinate to kidnap her in broad daylight."
Shisui nodded, "The problem is that there was nobody around who saw what happened, so we have no way of knowing who were looking for."
"Right." Itachi said thoughtfully, "The Uchiha aren't like the Hyūga. Which children in the clan have awakened their Sharingan is a strict secret. With that in mind, Uzumaki Naruto-kun should've been the more likely target. And there's no way that man from before could have snuck into the village."
"You're right, not with security increased for the Chunin Exams—Wait! That's it!" Shisui said suddenly, "The Chunin Exam! Any of the shinobi from another village could've taken her. The most likely culprit would be a team who was eliminated after the second exam. We should start by checking with the guards at the A-Un gate to see if any of them have left recently."
Itachi nodded and followed his friend, trying to stay calm while his mind raced with possible reasons for Aiko's abduction.
"A team from the Hidden Stone left with their Jonin instructor a little less than an hour ago." One of the guards told Shisui when they arrived.
"Where they carrying anything when they left?" Shisui asked.
"Just the wooden packs that they brought with them when they came here." The guard answered.
"How big are those?" The young Jonin inquired.
"Um, about the length of their backs or so, and about the width of their torsos... maybe two feet deep?"
"The length of their backs..." Shisui said thoughtfully.
"On an adult, that would plenty big enough to carry a small child." Itachi confirmed, following Shisui's train of thought.
"You're right." Shisui said, "We need to catch up to them before they reach the border. The question is: how do we track them?"
"What's going on?" A voice asked, and a young man walked over to them with a somewhat bored expression. Itachi recognized him as Hatake Kakashi, the man who had saved him from Uchiha Obito two years prior.
"Somebody put a group of children under genjutsu and then abducted Uchiha Aiko." Shisui answered, "We think it may have been a group of genin from Iwagakure and their Jonin instructor."
Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly, "Uchiha Aiko?" His expression turned serious, "Do you have something that could be used to track her scent?"
"Yes." Itachi replied as he pulled out Aiko's handkerchief, "My little brother Sasuke found this on the ground when Shisui released him from the genjutsu. It belongs to Aiko. We think that she may have seen through the genjutsu and tried to resist."
"But four-year-old girls aren't exactly a match for adult Jonin." Shisui concluded, "So she dropped this for us."
Kakashi nodded. He pricked his finger with a kunai and then wove a series of signs. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" A single pug appeared in the spot from a puff of smoke. "Pakkun," The young man began, "We think a little girl has been kidnapped from Konoha." He took the handkerchief from Itachi, "We need you to track her scent."
The pug nodded before sniffing the handkerchief, and then the ground nearby before looking over his shoulder at Kakashi, "It's faint, but it seems she's been here. Judging by the smell, she was probably being carried."
Kakashi nodded to the dog, "Follow it." Pakkun immediately took off and Kakashi and the two Uchiha boys followed him.
"But why would they target Aiko-chan?" Shisui wondered now that they were on the right track, "Jealously toward Itachi for completing the second exam alone? Revenge for beating them?"
"Just because she has the Uchiha Crest on her back doesn't mean she'd be close to Itachi. People don't necessarily know everyone within their own clan. Also, you said that Sasuke was with her. He bears a resemblance to Itachi, so that would've made him the more likely target in that scenario." Kakashi replied, "More likely, it's because of her birth parents."
"Nichi-jisan and Megumi-basan?" Itachi asked in slight confusion.
"Yes." Kakashi replied, "The two of you are probably too young to know this, but Megumi-san became an asset to Konoha during the war. Her skills at predicting the enemies' intentions based on their movements made it that much easier for the Nara Clan to form counter-strategies. Because of this, Iwagakure attempted to capture her while she was on a mission to survey the enemy's movements, but they were foiled by Uchiha Nichi."
"I know a little bit about that." Itachi remarked, "The two of them eloped on their way back to Konoha, right?"
"Yes, but that is, at least in theory, irrelevant to the current situation." Kakashi replied, "Uchiha Nichi adapted to the Sharingan extremely quickly. He had only just awakened it that day when his own cell had been wiped out. Aiko-chan has already awakened her Sharingan. Couple that with the intelligence of her mother..."
"And she has the potential to be even more valuable than either of her parents were alone." Shisui concluded.
"Exactly." Kakashi confirmed.
"But nobody outside the village should know about that." Itachi said in confusion, "Aiko was adopted by my parents. Any foreigner would think that she was their biological daughter. And they definitely shouldn't know about her Sharingan."
"You're right." Kakashi said with a nod, "Unless they were extremely familiar with the Uchiha, nobody would realize that one of Aiko's parents was from a different clan. And she's hardly had the chance to become famous for her Sharingan when she can't even sustain it yet. Unfortunately, that means that somewhere, there must've been an intelligence leak."
"You mean that somebody from Konoha told Iwagakure about her?" Shisui asked, "What would anybody have to gain from betraying the Leaf in that manner?" It was a rather roundabout way to commit treason.
"We can't be certain without concrete evidence, but the most likely scenario would be somebody from the Shimura Clan." Kakashi replied.
"Aiko mentioned something about that to me before." Itachi said, "But what exactly is the history between her and the Shimura?"
"Aiko's mother was betrothed to the next head of the Shimura." Kakashi explained, "It was an arrangement agreed upon by her parents and Lord Danzō. Megumi wasn't given a say in the matter."
"That's pretty archaic..." Shisui remarked.
Kakashi nodded in agreement, "Even among the Uchiha and Hyūga, the heirs to the head family are allowed to choose their spouse, as long as they choose somebody from within the clan, to preserve purity in the bloodline. The Shimura don't have a Kekkei Genkai, so there's no need for such a strict practice. But Megumi-san was the brightest member of their clan in terms of intelligence. They wanted her to marry the heir to the clan in the hopes of making the clan stronger. Like I said, she wasn't given a say. Furthermore, for a long time, there has been some bad blood between the Uchiha and Shimura. When Uchiha Nichi ignored that conflict by rescuing her, Megumi-san fell in love with the man who had viewed her simply as a comrade, without concern for which clan she was from. Needless to say, when they returned to Konoha after the fact and announced their elopement, the Shimura were furious. It seems they had mistaken Megumi to be a meek girl who would do as she was told, but in fact, she was quite headstrong. When she remained steadfast in her commitment to Nichi-san, the Shimura disowned her, and she mutually disowned them." The white-haired man glanced over at Itachi, "Under other circumstances, your father probably would've been reluctant to accept Megumi-san into the clan, but as it was, he was impressed by her decision and her determination to choose her own path."
"There was a big celebration in the clan when Aiko was born." Shisui recalled, "Everyone had high hopes for her."
"Yes, but to the Shimura, Aiko is a child who should never have been born; a mingling of Uchiha and Shimura blood that should never have existed." Kakashi replied.
"So somebody told Iwagakure about Aiko in order to get rid of her." Itachi surmised. Kakashi nodded.
"That's the most likely scenario. There's even a chance that they planned to ambush her kidnappers once they were outside of the village, kill Aiko, and claim that she just happened to die in the crossfire." He warned, causing Itachi's eyes to narrow, "In any case, the sooner we catch up to them, the better. If we capture the ones who took her, the intelligence division can figure out the rest."
"We're almost there." Pakkun said over his shoulder. The four of them came upon the team from Iwagakure, who were walking down the road at an unhurried pace.
"Hold it!" Kakashi called. The jonin and his three subordinates turned around to face the slapped-together team-of-three-plus-a-dog.
"What do you Konoha shinobi want with us?" The jonin asked in annoyance, "My students were eliminated from the Chunin Exam, so we're going home."
"That's all well and good," Kakashi replied, "Except I think you're trying to take something of ours with you. Or rather, someone."
"Where's your proof?" The jonin demanded, "Are you trying to start something with the Hidden Stone?"
"These two are from the Uchiha Clan." Kakashi replied while gesturing to Itachi and Shisui, "They've already confirmed that you've abducted Uchiha Aiko."
The jonin smirked, setting down his pack and opening it slowly, "She really is brilliant for her age. She saw right through the genjutsu that my student cast. Even the other Uchiha kid who was with her was knocked out by it, but we had to use a more direct method with her." He pulled the bound and unconscious Aiko out of the pack and held a kunai to her neck, "But I suggest you back down. Brilliant as she is, I'd sooner kill her than let her become useful to Konoha."
"You might want to double-check where that kunai is aiming." Itachi said evenly.
"What?" Suddenly the jonin became aware that he was holding the blade not up to Aiko, but his female student, who had gone rigid with fear.
"S-Sensei..." The frightened genin managed nervously. As he quickly let her go, the jonin looked and saw that Itachi was already cradling Aiko in his arms.
"Since when...?" The man gasped, realizing that he had been caught in a genjutsu that had been carefully crafted by Itachi.
"From the very beginning." Shisui said with a smirk.
"Aiko is my precious younger sister." Itachi told him, "I wasn't willing to take any chance of harm coming to her."
"Itachi, take Aiko to safety." Kakashi told him, "We'll take care of these four." He didn't know Itachi well, but Kakashi was perceptive enough to realize that the usually composed ten-year-old was on the verge of losing his temper.
"Right." Itachi said, leaping off into the trees as Shisui and Kakashi prepared to engage the enemy.
"So, do you guys wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?" Shisui asked, "Either way, we're taking you back to Konoha." The three genin whimpered in alarm while the jonin growled.
兄弟
"Aiko, wake up." Itachi urged gently, having already removed the cloth that had been used to gag his younger sister. Aiko groaned and slowly opened her eyes.
"Itachi-niichan...?" She was clearly disoriented.
"It's all right. You're safe now." Itachi assured her as he carefully cut the ropes that bound her wrists and ankles.
"Wh-what happened?" Aiko asked, her expression becoming frightened as her cognizance returned.
"Ninja from the Hidden Stone tried to kidnap you." Itachi explained, "Shisui came by the park and found Sasuke and your friends under a genjutsu. When he released them, Sasuke found your handkerchief, and we were able to use that to track you before they left the Land of Fire."
"Are Sasuke-niichan and the others all right?!" Aiko exclaimed in concern.
"They're fine." Itachi assured her, "The genjutsu didn't hurt them." Aiko's lip quivered as she looked down.
"I-I saw through the genjutsu and broke it, b-but... I-I didn't have time to..."
"I know." Itachi replied as he hugged her close to reassure her, "It wasn't your fault, Aiko. You actually did very well. Because you dropped the handkerchief, it was easy for us to find you." He rubbed Aiko's back as she clung to him in fright, "Don't worry. From here on out, I will definitely protect you."
Unlike in Second Survivor, Itachi does think of Aiko as his younger sister in this story and treasures her as much as Sasuke. Of course, this is a non-massacre AU, so he won't have to try to choose between the clan and his village. :) Also, the story of the conflict between Aiko's parents and the Shimura is the same in both stories.