A/N: I'm posting the first three chapters at one go to give you all a better idea of the story, maybe... Anyway please enjoy!

Beta'd by the amazing Alice J ^-^

Chapter 3 - Avarice

A week later, we finally got our first C-rank mission. The main difference between a C-rank and a D-rank mission was whether or not they potentially required fighting an enemy. While Daichi jumped in excitement with the prospect of more interesting missions, I contemplated the idea of finally fighting potential enemies.

Daichi and Shun did not understand, they fought to be a shinobi, but I fought to kill. They hadn't seen me fighting for real in hand to hand combat, the sparring I had with them in taijutsu was nothing compared to how I fought with Itachi and Shisui, and that's nothing compared to how merciless I could be when facing an enemy. I was certain, that if I were to engage with the enemies with no restrain, there will almost certainly be casualties, either theirs or mine.

Nevertheless, we received a standard escort mission and Akira-sensei told us to meet him at the village gate at 1100. I went back to the compound quickly and grabbed my supplies, I packed my bag with enough shurikens and kunai, then strapped it to my leg. I strapped my bokken on my back and sliding it into the thin obi tied around my long vest to secure it.

"Good luck on your mission, Maiko!" mother said to me as I prepared to leave the house. Sasuke was one-year-old now, he awkwardly toddled towards me and hugged my leg tightly.

"Nee-chan… goo.. Good luck!" I smiled at Sasuke's attempt at speaking full sentences. I rubbed his head, gently picked him up and brought him to Mother.

"Bye, Mother, bye Sasuke, I'll come back in a week or so." I said to them before I walked to the village gate.

We left exactly at 1100. The group we were escorting was a caravan of merchants from a village near the outskirts of Fire Country, they had a shop in Konoha's commercial center. After a season's business, they needed to go back to the village to replenish supply and also to take their earnings home. It's a perfectly straightforward deal, mission: escorting and bodyguarding. Duration, possibly around seven days. Potential danger: wild animals and bandits.

The leader of the caravan was Tomachi Kojirou, a man in his forties. He seemed like a benevolent old man who worked hard in appearance, but I didn't really care, as long as it wouldn't hinder the mission.

Akira-sensei followed the caravan from behind, he told us that he wouldn't help us unless we were in life or death situation. Daichi stayed in the front of the caravan, Shun escorted the caravan from the side, and I travelled on trees to get a better view of the surrounding. Shun's sensory ability really helped a lot on this trip, every time, he sensed something incoming, either Daichi or I would go and take care of it. For most of the time, they were just wild animals, a few kunai and shuriken would take care of them.

At night, the caravan people would set up the camp and fire for warmth. One of those nights, Tomachi-san smiled gently and asked us "The lot of you are awfully young, you sure you can handle the tough journey?" Daichi immediately answered defensively "Oyaji!, we are already genins, we are shinobi, you bet we are going to be finishing this mission in flying colours!"

"Haha, that's good, young people need to have strong will. What about you, young lady, feeling brave in the presence of this young boy?" for some reason, the conversation was directed to me. I faked a smile and said politely "thank you for taking care of my teammates, I'll go survey the area, if you don't mind." Not feeling like talking, I did my best to slip away unnoticed, hiding in the shadow. Just as I was watching from the shadows of the trees, I felt a presence beside me. Not sensing any malicious intent, I kept still, already knowing who's beside me.

"Not feeling like socializing, Maiko?" Akira-sensei asked me as he sat down on the branch beside me.

"Not really, I just want to go survey the area for potential danger." I answered plainly.

"You have to admit, the team needs a leader, Daichi is brave and passionate, but he is too hot-headed. Shun is calm, but his meek personality is not suited to lead the team from the front. But you, Maiko, your talent as a kunoichi is outstanding, and you have the natural born calmness and decisiveness that make you leader material. I know you are young, but you need to make your teammates trust you, and you need to trust your teammates" Akira-sensei explained calmly, I stayed silent for a few seconds, taking in his words. He made it sound so permanent, as if the genin team was our future and everything.

"So much responsibility, sensei, I really don't think I'm suited for this. Daichi will do fine when he grows a bit, and Shun will help him. I've never told anyone this, but you know my clan, Itachi will be the leader like everyone wanted, and I will be supporting him from the shadows. I never planned on leading anything, all I'm doing is to survive." I responded with cold voice. There was no sound responding me, I guess Sensei must had left after my disappointing answer.

After six days of travel, we almost arrived at the client's village. We had just travelled for ten hours today, and Mr. Tomachi decided to rest for the night, before advancing to the village tomorrow. There was still half a day's journey left, but the sun had already set.

Suddenly, Shun tensed, he closed his eyes and concentrated. "Everyone freezes, we have incomings!" He yelled all of a sudden.

"Animal? Civilian? Shinobi? How many? What direction?" I asked.

"Their chakra signatures are not big enough to be shinobis, probably bandits, there are about 10 to 15 of them. They are coming from the northeast direction." Shun answered. After hearing there were possibly 15 bandits, the whole caravan seemed to be full blown panic. Even Daichi looked dazed by the news, and Shun seemed very unsure of what to do.

I sighed, suddenly seeing sensei's point. I yelled to thin air, knowing that Sensei would be watching us from somewhere, "What level of force are we allow to use." a moment later, a voice answered "you are allowed to use any force necessary to protect yourself, your teammates and the clients, preferably capturing the bandits alive. If not, use deadly force."

"Alright, everyone, listen to me, all the civilians, please return to your caravan, and stay inside. Shun, how far are they?" I asked in a serious voice, thankfully, all the civilians stayed close to the caravan like I asked them to.

"About 100 meters away right now." Shun answered.

"I will cast a small genjutsu to halt their movement, Daichi will take the east and I will take the north, when you see their movement stopping, pick the ones that are far from others, then do whatever you can to keep them from fighting, knock them out, kill them." I said to Daichi, and he nodded nervously. Then I turned to Shun, "stay beside the caravan, protect them, keep tabs on the signals, notify us if there are more incoming. If you see anyone needing help, go help them." he also nodded. Finally I said to both of them, "if you are in a pinch, use a replacement jutsu or body flicker to get out of the battlefield. Don't be soft, it's either them or us."

We quickly got into the position I assigned, "Shun, how far are they?", he answered: "50 meters".

"Perfect, I will cast the genjutsu now, stay alert." I said as I activated my sharingan, black tomoes spinning furiously in my red eyes, quickly locating the shade of chakra in the northeast direction about 40 meters away. I quickly did the hand seals for the vertigo genjutsu, it wasn't a super powerful genjutsu, but I could cast it on a wide area, making the targets experiencing momentary nausea, confusion and weakness. "Now!" I said as I sensed the spread of chakra signature faltered. Upon hearing my voice, Daichi immediately sprung out and I followed him.

I immediately found a male bandit who stumbled due to the vertigo genjutsu. I body-flickered myself to behind him and immediately smashed my chakra enhanced feet into his right knee, clearly breaking his kneecap and bending it at an awkward angle. The man yelled in pain, but I didn't stop there, without hesitation, I grabbed both his arms one by one and twisted them until a clear pop sounded, finally, with a kick, I sent him to one of the trees with three limbs broken. Without stopping, I catched another faltering, pulling out my bokken, I lowered my body and flickered to behind him. I struck him with my bokken forcefully on his neck, as he fell, I used my other arm to pull his body backwards and kneed him in the back. I probably used too much force, since I heard a crackle sound from his spine; usually, when I sparred with Itachi and Shisui, this much chakra enhancing will only make them feel extreme pain, not break their back. I didn't even wait to watch the man fall down to the ground, he probably won't be walking again unless some miracle treatment happened.

Quickly, I took out another two men with the same method. I thought about using the fire release techniques, both Great Fireball Technique Phoenix Fire Technique would be useful and quick in getting rid of the enemies. But they are too lethal against non-shinobi and could potentially burn the forest. I also tracked Daichi with my sharingan, and he seemed to be doing fine, a little nervous, but he picked out two men from the side and fought them using taijutsu and kunai. After a few exchanges, he overpowered his opponents and tied them in ninja wires like Akira-sensei taught them. I nodded lightly at the progress, Shun also targeted some bandits using shurikens projectiles, and he was keeping them from approaching the caravan. Like I thought, a group of bandits with only 15 people were amateurs, they were neither trained or organized, or otherwise, Akira-sensei would not leave us with this many enemies.

Seeing the remaining enemies are closed in, I flashed Daichi a signal that told him to fall back so we could regroup and attack together from the caravan. He nodded and we used our chakra enhanced speed to bypass the bandits. As soon as we arrived in front of the caravan, we attacked fiercely again. I lashed out and dislocated a few more joints, smashed a few more knees, and knocked out a few more bandits. It was tempting to just twist their necks and get it over with, but maybe it was not time yet to show that side of me. However, it was slightly frustrating that I wouldn't be able to use the full power of my close combat style, after all, it was never used for show, but to kill.

Just as I was finishing off an enemy on my side, I noticed Daichi on my right faltered a bit. I quickly kneed the man in the back, hitting his knees with my bokken and let him fall to the ground. I turned and saw Daichi being restrained by one of the larger bandits. The bandit kicked him in the stomach and punched away the kunai in his hands. Shun was quickly to work as he tried to shuriken the hell out of the man, but the bandit seemed to found a piece of wood fallen from the caravan and used it to block the flying weapons. I could see his eyes red from anger, he was probably the leader of this band of ruffians, and seeing their prey being snatched away and his underlings falling one by one must had really made him mad.

Shun being Shun, he quickly changed his plan and lashed out ninja wired, trying to pulled Daichi out of the way. I understood his plan immediately and body flickered toward the bandit leader. I appeared above him, and I struck the bokken down in a swift motion, hitting his elbow, making him drop the wood shield he picked up for himself. I twirled the bokken around and allow my body to fall. In the meantime, while he was still too slow to react, I brought both of my arm up and locked them around the man's neck. I pulled forcefully, and kneed him on the spine, hearing the slight cracking sound and his loud yell in pain, forcing his body to arch backwards unnaturally. Using the momentum, I did my favorite move, I arched backwards as well and threw him over the my head. When his chest hit the cold hard ground, I pushed my leg up and did a backflip, landing right on him.

I made a quick decision as my knees dug into his back, pushing his chest to the ground. I swiftly pulled his head up and wrapped my hands on the side of his head. Willing my chakra to flow to my arms, I twisted his neck in full force. With a loud crack, his head limped in an unnatural position, and his eyes void of any sign of life. I made a decision to kill him, because he was too strong for me to hold down; because he would not stop attacking if I did not restrain him due to his emotional instability; because Daichi needed medical attention and I needed to end this quickly.

When I stood up again, I checked the surrounding to make sure there wasn't anyone left, then I turned my attention to the caravan. I saw Shun and Daichi's shocked face, laced with hints of fear. Suddenly my heart faltered, and I stopped on my track. Why do I care what they think? Instantly, my head was suddenly flooded with images. Bodies, necks twisted in unnatural angle, they were all my previous missions for OLYMPUS. They were like films, flashing image after image, it was so overwhelming for a second that I clutched my head trying to ease the discomfort. I thought I buried them all, I guess I didn't.

"Maiko, are you okay?" When I opened my eyes again, I saw Daichi and Shun running up to me, the fear in their eyes was gone, and all that was left was the concern. I shook my head and realized that the images were gone. I quickly glanced at Daichi, who was clutching his stomach.

"Are you okay, how's your injury?" I asked him, and he just laughed, "Don't worry about it, I'm just feeling sick because that asshole disturbed my dinner." Shun shook his head at Daichi's description, then he looked around, probably sensing if there was any moving target.

"They are all done, we should alert the officials to pick them up to prison." Shun concluded, and Daichi seemed to understand him perfectly and immediately ran off to borrow messenger birds from the caravan group.

To our surprise, Akira-sensei also appeared in front of us, he stopped Daichi for a second and said to us "Good job, everyone, nicely done. Maiko, your plan is well thought out, but you need to understand your teammate's ability a little more, as a teammate, you can't let Daichi run along alone beside you when you know he can't follow your speed. Also, why didn't you communicate more with Shun, or he could have alerted you about the danger coming for Daichi." Sensei stared at me mercilessly as I dip my head in an apologetic way. I had to agree with him, I should have stayed with Daichi a bit closer, then nobody would get hurt.

"But you did great as your first time commanding the team, the genjutsu was a good call and it gave your team mates opportunities to strike." Sensei gave me a little smile before he reached out and grabbed my shoulder to comfort me, "Don't worry about the kill, it's your first time kill and I agree with you, your attention should have been about the wellbeing of your client and your teammates, ending things as quickly as you can is the best way. Besides, your performance in the battle is excellent." I didn't disagree with him out loud, although in my memory, this was definitely not my first kill, as to the number, I had already forgotten to count them.

"Daichi, your timing is great at the beginning, watching for opportunities to strike." Sensei continued onto Daichi, and he beamed at Akira-sensei's words. "However, when you were faced with a superior opponent who was obviously emotionally unstable, you should alert your teammates for help. Maiko was right beside you at that time, and Shun was right behind you. If Shun hadn't pull you away and Maiko didn't clean up your mess, you would be severely injured, so count yourself lucky, but Shinobi can't rely on luck." Daichi nodded hard at sensei's words.

"Lastly, Shun, your role was well played, as a sensor in the team, you kept your teammates alert, and provided them help when needed. However, you should speak up about your ability and allow your teammates to incorporate them into fights." Sensei commented and Shun nodded his head. Finally, Akira-sensei smiled at us and clapped his hands, "Alright, Shun and Maiko will clean the battlefield and gather up the bandits, while Daichi and I will discuss means of communication with the clients."

As Shun and I walked into the battleground and started to pick up discarded shurikens and to tie up remaining bandits, Shun got a chance to closely examine my 'work'.

"Brutal, it's amazing how you knocked them off so cleanly." He expressed as he tied ninja wires around a man's body, who was still unconscious with his right shoulder and right kneecap dislocated.

"Amazing?" I questioned with uncertainty.

"Yes, you don't have to worry about us judging your way of fighting or the fact that you killed that bandit. We are all shinobis, and we understand the point of our jobs. Frankly, I'm amazed by your skills, I've always thought I already judged you very highly, but after this, I realized that I still underestimated your skill. Daichi also feels the same, and I'm sure he is grateful to you for saving his life." Shun finished his words and gave me a big thumbs up, I stared at him for a moment before moving onto the next bandit.

"Wow, that must be the most heart to heart moment we've had ever since we became a team." I couldn't help but say, and Shun just chuckled at my remark.

"We should all do it again sometimes."

"Maybe…"

Very soon after the battle, the local authority came and picked up fourteen prisoners and one dead body, The rest of the mission went by without a hitch. We arrived at the village the day after, and we stayed their for a day to recuperate before heading straight home, spending another two days on the way back. Eventually we came home after ten days and collected our first C-rank mission pay along with the record of a perfect C-rank mission.

(◕ω◕✿)

After our first C-rank mission, we spent another two months focusing on team training and D-rank missions. Before I even realized it, June and July were already over, which meant that I turned seven while Itachi turned eight. We didn't particularly celebrate our birthdays, Father gave us some speeches about keeping up with the training and mother expressed awe in how big we'd grown. Itachi and I were too busy keeping up with the clan training anyway, although Shisui and I did forcefully dragged Itachi to his favorite sweet shop to eat mochi and dango on his birthday.

Sasuke's birthday was different; Mother, Itachi and I both stayed for the night and celebrated it with Sasuke, who just wanted to eat his cake and curl up in mother's arms. This year, he turned two, still too young to be trained. Though I suspect that father would most likely start training him at four, a good age for Sasuke to be physically and mentally prepared, at least by the Uchiha standards.

It was one of those hot days in August. Even though it was currently nine o'clock at evening, the humid air still radiated heat. I sat by the koi pond in the inner yard, holding little Sasuke in my arms. I wore a simple white T-shirt with the Uchiha fan crest on the back and a pair of gray shorts. My shinobi shoes were taken off and put to the side as I dipped my feet into the koi pond in an attempt to escape the heat.

"Maiko, can you watch Sasuke for a while? I need to go run an errand." Mother said to me as she quickly prepared to go out.

"Of course, Mother, take your time." I answered. If mother went out, then that meant there will only be Sasuke and I at home for the next little while. Father and the majority of the clan were still in a clan meeting at the shrine, and they should be back later tonight; Itachi was out on one of the D-rank missions with his team, and he should also be back soon. Although the Uchiha compound was big and hosted a clan, the residences are quite spread out and separate, thus the main house was kept isolated with the rest of the clan.

"Now it's just you and me, Sasuke, what do you want to do?" I asked lightheartedly. Sasuke was my treasure, ever from his birth. I'd come to accept that my heart beat for him as well. I was different from my past life, although some parts of my personality would never change, I had the warmth of a family, and it was absolutely mesmerizing. More than once, I'd contemplated the teachings of OLYMPUS, cut your ties, cut your emotions, for as long as they exist, you will have weaknesses.

My family was my weakness: Mother, Itachi, Sasuke, Shisui, if any one of them was involved, my logical analysis would shut down, my center of focus would become tunnelled, and I would make mistakes, fatal ones that would cost lives. But this was a weakness I was willing to take. It was funny that I would take in the concept so readily, after eighteen year of being conditioned to deprive of it. One would thought that I gained an immunity, yet from the moment I felt it, I grasped for it. Clinging hard onto a spider thread, until I could get inside the spider web, letting the threads bound me with no regrets.

"Mai-nee-chan! Games!" Sasuke said in his childish voice, I chuckled at my carefree brother, who decided that playing with my shoulder length hair was good enough.

It was all so quiet, too quiet. The unease I felt washed over me, and without hesitation, I brought out the sharingan. Casting genjutsu in Uchiha compound, they were either really stupid or really confident. Alas, their genjutsu was definitely not confident, with one simple glare, the genjutsu broke, revealing a strong killing intent emitting throughout the room.

"Sasuke, get behind me." I lowered my voice, and Sasuke obediently scrambled behind me. Suddenly, a rain of shuriken came crashing down on us. I quickly scooped up Sasuke and ran toward the other side of the living room. The bokken in my room was too far away, so I went for the spare bags of shuriken and kunai Father stored in living room for emergency. As I ran, the wave of shuriken followed closely behind me, one of them scratched my arm as I shield Sasuke from one of the strays. With one huge jump, I hugged Sasuke tight to me chest and slid on the floor to reach the cupboard. I reached in and quickly pulled out the bag, but just as I was about pull out the weapon, a slash of lightning came straight for my hand. Quickly, I retreated my hand, and the lightning pierced the bag of weapon and knocked it to the scorched ground a few meters away.

Every cell in my body screamed for me to run away. From the projection of the weapons and the lightning jutsu, there were at least two enemies who were highly efficient in ninja arts. They were quiet enough to infiltrate the Uchiha compound, meaning they must had confident that they could finish whatever they want before anyone notice. If it was only me, then I could make a run for it, but Sasuke was here, my speed would slow down, and I couldn't risk the danger of not knowing where the enemy was. What should I do? Stall for time and identify the enemy. Whether I decided to make a run for it or fight would have to go from there.

"You don't have to hide anymore, I can see all of you." I yelled and activated my sharingan, faking my confident and knowledge, hoping they would take the bait.

"As expected of the Uchihas and their sharingans, even the little ones have such formidable eyes." Two men stepped out of the shadow, the one in front of me spoke while the other stepped out to block the entrance.

"What do you want with us! Speak!" I yelled again, my left hand gripped hard onto Sasuke, in case there were more. However, my sharingan did not detect any more chakra signature, and I did not see any more irregular movements using my enhanced vision.

"Run away, young girl, leave the boy behind, this does not concerns you." the man in front of us spoke again. Both of the men wore black gears, with cloths covering their face. They did not have any hitai-ates or anything that could identify them to any village, but I could hear the foreign tones in their voices that didn't belong to the native Konoha.

"Not happening." I snapped coldly, without any more hesitation, I flashed the hand seals for Katon: Great Fireball Technique, and gathered the chakra to my chest. I blew out a fireball and sent it straight for the man in front of us, hoping that it will hit in some way and maybe the fire and smoke will alert the others in the compound.

The man was definitely startled by the fire jutsu, as he quickly stepped out of the way, but the fireball followed closely and grazed by him, crashing into the wall behind him. Using the smoke, I picked up Sasuke and the bag of weapons and ran for the door. The other shinobi blocked the door and shot out another string of lightning. I barely dodged it as I put Sasuke down behind a table by the door.

I pulled out three shurikens and threw them toward the shinobi at the door. My projectiles were not as good as Itachi, but they were decent. As expected, the man moved right to avoid the incoming shurikens. I didn't want to use fire jutsu on him since I didn't want to accidentally burn down the entrance.

I picked up Sasuke again and dashed for the door. So close, I was only a few meter away, As long as I was out, I could ask for help, and the enemy would have no advantages in pursuing me. Yeah, like that will happen.

I was too concentrated on sending Sasuke out, I didn't even notice the kunai lashing from behind me. At first, I didn't even realize the pain and blood from my right shin due to the adrenaline. Only when I fell to the ground, I realized that a kunai had pierced my muscle, and my body was pulled back by the chain attached to the kunai. I clenched my teeth and grabbed onto the kunai, with one forceful motion, I pulled the blade out of my leg. Suddenly, I felt a bad vibe, and form the corner of my eyes, I could see the shinobi I distracted with shurikens were approaching me swiftly. His target was of course, Sasuke, who was crying and stood in front of me in a daze.

My mind quickly went clear from the pain, as this point, anything would do. Quickly, I formed the hand seals for Katon: Phoenix Sage Fire. dozens of fire bullets shot out of my mouth, and they went straight for the shinobi coming for Sasuke. In the midst of smoke and fire, I ignored the painful scream from the Shinobi buried in phoenix sage fire as I pulled out a kunai from the bag of weapons and pushed it into Sasuke's hand.

"Sasuke, Run! Go find the adults! Quickly!" I yelled at the crying boy, who seemed too paralyzed to move. "Go! I'm counting on you!" I said one more time before pushing him out of the door with a rush of chakra. As soon Sasuke was out of the door, I pushed myself up and reached for the door. I could try my best to run out, or I could close the door and try to stall them. I didn't even have the chance to evaluate my choice before a kick on my side sent me flying and crashed into the table.

"You little bitch!" The first man stared at me venomously as he retracted his feet from the kicking motion, he then yelled towards his comrade by the door whose clothes were half burned and body lined with scorch marks, "Did you get the brat?"

"That little bitch threw the brat out, the smoke and fire were making too much as a commotion. We need to get out now if we want to escape!" the man answered in a choked voice, obviously trying to get the smoke out of his trachea.

"Damn it. Doesn't matter, her eyes will do. She has the sharingan, it's better than the brat who didn't even activate his eyes." The man reached for me, and he grabbed my leg to stop me from moving away. The house was on fire now, the smoke and the heat was suffocating me, I desperately wished I learned some water jutsu before.

I struggled to get out of there, and my movement showed more panic than I would ever want. I raised my other leg and attempted to kick the shinobi away, but my body must have been really slow and small compared to his, with one strike, he hit my leg away, and then he stabbed my right thigh. He laughed sadistically and pull the kunai down as my flesh torn and blood rushed out, staining the floor crimson.

"You brought this on yourself! If you just handed over that boy… all of this wouldn't have happened!." He pulled out the kunai and raised it over my head. Red blood drops dripping down my cheek. "I'll gouge your eyes out and present it to our leader-sama, then I will be promoted!" The shinobi laughed hysterically, I could almost see his mind running wild from the emotions and the greed.

He gripped the kunai tighter and brought the sharp point down with laughter. At that moment, the sharingan exaggerated the image, it used to help me see the movements of the enemy, but now, all I could see was the sharpness of the kunai. The metal was pointing straight at my eyes, my precious eyes. As if I could see the future, that kunai would strike down and the searing pain that accompanied the blindness would overwhelm me. Gosh, it's like my eyes exploded… exploded… I wanted to close my eyes, I really did, but they seemed to stuck open no matter what. Why can't you let me die in peace?

As the kunai went down and desperation filled me, I witnessed something amazing. Something crashed into the shinobi from the door just as the kunai touched my skin. The shinobi went flying and crashed into the wall, and the kunai only managed to make a thin line of blood by my left eye. Something busted into the door, and there were yelling and screaming. My eyes gave out, the sharingan faded, and I lost consciousness.

"Get away from my child!" …

"Maiko!"...

"Mai!"...