A/N: Good day?! Yeah, good day!

Beta'd by the whimsical Alice J.

Chapter 17 - Liar Liar

"Hey Rabbit, have you ever been in love?" I heard Lady Fukiko asking when it was my shift to guard her the day before the Tea Festival. Technically, Otter was also here, but she was guarding on the outside while I was inside her room. Hound and Falcon were off to investigate, hoping to catch Watanabe and his gang before the festival. We didn't inform the Daimyo of his possible assassination at the festival, so we were using him as the bait and nobody objected.

"No, Lady Fukiko." I answered with a bored tone. Can we stop this chit-chat? I haven't slept for a while, a peaceful quietness would really help right now.

"I guess you wouldn't, you are so young after all. How old are you? Ten, eleven, twelve?" Fukiko went on and ranted. I ignored her questions; under no circumstances was I obliged to answer them.

"What about likes, have you ever been infatuated with someone?" the girl continued to ask, and I felt my eyebrows twitch behind my mask. She just didn't know when to shut up, does she? For a little girl, she sure was quite a liar, chit-chatting with me while planning to assassinate her father. Either she was really good at lying, or she just didn't care. Either way, she could be a promising star in the business of assassination, if she had started the training earlier.

"No." I said, keeping my body statue-like. Fukiko flopped her body back down to the bed and proceeded to play with her hair when she realized I was not the best candidate for small talks.

"You see what I mean, you are so boring, what do you even do in spare times? Your life seems almost as boring as mine, except you get to go out of the country and you get to do exciting stuff with others." the teenage girl muttered in a tone mixed with self-pity and envy. So she craves adventure in life and human interaction, is that why she rebelled against her father? I thought silently.

"Hey, tell me about your teammates, what are they like? Actually, tell me about the others, I already know that you and Otter are completely boring, a pair of old hags." I was suddenly glad that Otter was not here right now; like I said, my mentor was scary with her katana. I didn't answer the girl, I had no right to gossip about my teammates, and she could be just gathering information for Watanabe.

"Fine, keep on ignoring me like that, you are just as boring as those servants father sent me. He won't even allow me to see any men, saying that they are improper, but come on, everyone here is so boring." Somehow the little lady decided that I was the right person to complain to as if I was her listening ear for the day. It did give me a few ideas about the spy we were working with here. This girl was spoiled by her father, yet she craves exciting adventures, companionship, and even romantic love… Oh, so this is what it's about. She was infatuated with one of the missing-nins, she thought she was in love. Being as protected as she is, she was probably tricked. I doubt she was even aware of the implication of her father's assassination, as all she sees is a way to break free from her father's rules.

I felt no pity for her, instead, I hated her. How dare she get tangled in the business of assassination when she has no way of protecting herself? That dark world was not for normal people, and if you aren't prepared for it, then you have no business in there.

The girl continued to rant on about all aspects of her lives, adventure, excitement, and love, so I ignored her the whole way. Eventually, she quieted down and decided to leave me in peace. This night, I didn't trust her at all. I stayed in the room, hiding in the dark and set up a few more traps with a lot more kunais and shurikens than before, and I didn't care if she decided to "accidentally" open the window or not.

For that night, nothing happened, it was just me, Otter and this teenage girl, as if the calm was just the prelude for the storm that was going to happen tomorrow at the Tea festival.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

The Tea Festival started with a bang, the kind that can blow you into pieces.

One hour before the explosion, we had searched all over the guards, the Daimyo's clothes and his carriage for any kind of explosive tags. But there was a reason that Watanabe Nobu was a Tokubetsu Jonin in the art of explosives because no one could have guessed he would plant invisible tags that held just as much power as those written in inks.

So that's how the day started with a bang, the kind that almost killed the Tea Daimyo, but it didn't, because Zebra was fast enough to carry the plump Daimyo off of his carriage and Bear was fast enough to set up an earth wall barrier. So, the Daimyo lived, shaking like a scared kid beside Zebra. Unfortunately, four of his guards were instantly killed off in the explosion, but fortunately, Watanabe and his gang finally showed themselves.

They weren't particularly interesting or scary looking, but looks can be deceiving since Watanabe's invisible tag was annoying as hell. His tactics consist of throwing kunais and shurikens laced with explosions, but you didn't know which one will actually explode. There was also the fact that he obviously planted preexisting invisible tags in the marketplace beforehand, and it only took one wrong step for us to blow up into pieces. The only way, for me at least to know when they will explode, was the fact that my sharingan could see the sudden surge of chakra at the explosion spot a second before they actually explode. Having a Byakugan right now would have been useful, since those eyes could see even the slightest hint of chakra signal hidden in the tags, unlike my sharingan, which could only see strong surges.

I grabbed a dazed Fukiko beside me and jumped away from an incoming kunai. Just as it exploded a second later, I landed about ten metres away from the kunai and protected the girl with my backs. The explosives had a range of about ten meters as I realized earlier, so some of my clothes were burned, but there was no major damage done. Zebra was charged with protecting the Daimyo and heal the wounded, and I was charged with protecting Lady Fukiko, who despite being a traitor, was still a target of protection in our mission.

When I looked up again, I saw a dozen of incoming kunai towards me and I silently cursed. I formed a quick hand seal and shot up a dozen water bullets from my hands. Water Release: Water Bullets was one of the first water ninjutsu Kakashi taught me, and I willed the water bullets to hit the kunais, deflecting them away towards the empty stalls instead of us. Then I summoned up an earth wall around the girl and me when the sounds of explosions rang in my ears. The Water Bullets deflected most of the kunais far enough so that my Earth wall could actually withstand the damage, seeing Earth release was really not one of my strong suits.

Just as the smoke cleared, I felt a searing pain in my left arm and my hands came loose around my client. The girl freaking stabbed me with a fallen kunai. As the red blood fell from my arm, Fukiko ran frantically, towards the center of the explosion, towards Watanabe.

The worst part of all of this was the fact that she ran blindly and before I could stop her, she stepped on one of those invisible tags and I could see the chakra surge under her feet. I ran after her using a body flicker and I grabbed the flimsy girl and rolled behind a fallen board.

The explosion broke the board and flung us away with a sharp impact. When I stood up again with the shaken girl in my arm, I yelled at her: "What do you think you are doing? Stay the hell out of this!"

"But, Nobu, he wouldn't! He promised this will be over soon…" The girl looked dazed, eyeing the broken festivals and the charred bodies of those who didn't evacuate in time.

"Well, he just tried to kill you! What do you think assassination means, it means death, like all of these bodies." I screamed at her, not sure if she was actually hearing my words.

"I need to… I need to go see Nobu, I need to tell him to stop. We could still be together, I will run away with him, he doesn't have to do this" Fukiko struggled in my arms, and it's making my job at protecting her a real pain in the ass. Can't she see that Watanabe only wanted her for her claim as the ruler? Can't she see that her father was going to die no matter what according to Watanabe's plan?

"Stop it, snap out of it, I'm taking you back to the palace." I snapped furiously at the girl and I proceeded to drag her with me. Of course, being the stubborn teenager she was, she just had to bite the spot on my arm where she stabbed earlier. The searing pain numbed me for a second and she tried to run away, but I clamped my other hand on her shoulder to hold her in place. Suddenly, another wave of kunais came for me, and I had to let go of her to draw my swords and defend myself.

As I parried away the kunais and dodged the explosions, Fukiko ran away like a stray dog. Surprisingly, she didn't step on any more explosions until she reached the standstill between Watanabe and my teammates. After the battle, only Watanabe remained standing like a tragic hero. Three of his companions were either dead at the Anbu's feet or were still skewered on their swords.

Suddenly, Fukiko jumped towards Watanabe and started to sob on him. Watanabe was snapped out of his tragic hero stance and stared at the girl wide eyes, "What are you doing here Fukiko? I told you to run away to the castle the moment it all started!" He scolded her. I thought he would push her away or use her as a hostage, but instead, he scolded her like a brother to sister, with concerns and anger in his eyes. What. The. Hell?

"But Nobu, you said that only my father will disappear, but this… this is not what you promised." Fukiko sobbed while latching onto his arms. I had no idea what my fellow teammates thought of this exchange, but apparently, the Tea Daimyo thought his daughter was taken as a hostage.

"Stop, don't hurt my daughter, stop the attack, not if my daughter is there!" The old man yelled from the background, inside a heavily protected circle of guards with Zebra beside him.

"This is the only way, Fukiko, can't you see how ruthless those Konoha shinobis are? They wouldn't care about the lives they sacrifices, and they would kill me with you as the sacrifice, as long as they achieve their goals!" Watanabe spatted with rage as he latched his arm around Fukiko, the kunai in his hands awfully close to Fukiko's neck. All of my teammates were visible in Watanabe's eyes, except for me. I could go for the kill, I should go for the kill, after all, I was trained in one-hit assassination techniques. Watanabe was distracted by my teammates and the girl in his arms, a slash in the neck, a stab in the brain stem, I could kill him quickly.

"But I can run away with you, and father can't stop us anymore and we could leave in peace." Fukiko was basically screaming with tears. Naive, I thought, so naive, as if she didn't even realize the kunai dangling close to her neck. I couldn't just kill Watanabe, not without risking a fatal blow to Fukiko, and that can't do, we still have a mission objective to accomplish (although that girl could probably use some wake-up calls).

I couldn't kill Watanabe, but I could, probably, get Fukiko away from the man. As soon as Fukiko was out of the vicinity, my teammates are more than capable of dealing with the missing-nin. My eyes flashed to Hound, his hands were behind him, where Watanabe couldn't see and he was making some signal. It said "act on opportunity". He trusts me too much, I thought, he trusts that I won't be killing Watanabe until Fukiko is safe. Like I said, he puts too much faith in me. but unfortunately, he was right.

"You don't understand, Fukiko, even if we run away, we will have to run all the time. I'm tired of that, and I want to settle down with you, somewhere where we don't have to run…" Watanabe was monologuing, explaining his reasons to his precious Fukiko, but before he could finish his sentence, I launched for him.

It only took less than a second for me to reach Watanabe and Fukiko. I pulled out my tantō this time instead of the ninjatō because it is smaller, faster, and more precise. Before Watanabe could do anything, I had already stabbed the electricity charged blade into his shoulder. I twisted and severed his arm in an instant and his body froze from the paralyzing lightning chakra. I flipped my tantō and the arm that surrounds Fukiko flew up in an arching motion. Watanabe was reacting now because of the pain and the blood that sprayed from his limbless shoulder, but it didn't matter since I had already grabbed Fukiko and ran as fast as I could to get out of there.

I sent chakra to my feet so I could run faster, since if Watanabe planned to explode me, then I was screwed (and it would be Fukiko's fault). However, my worry ceased when I felt several trails of wind breeze passed me as I carried Fukiko off to her father. By the time I cleaned the blood from my eyes and looked back, the four Anbu was already restraining Watanabe. Hound raised his blood-stained blade above Watanabe's head, ready to deal the final blow.

"Nooo! Please, don't kill him!" Fukiko wailed in my arms despite the splatter of blood across half her body. There was no way Hound was going to stop because of the girl's scream, so I quickly ran a jolt of electricity down Fukiko's neck. Her screaming stopped and she went limp in my arm. It was easier that way, the girl was so much more troublesome when she was awake.

"Konoha! You are all ruthless, you sent me and my team to our deaths as sacrifices for the war, and yet you claim to be caring for all lives. Don't fuck with me, in Konoha's eyes, we are all disposable tools, and you are all murderers!" That was all he managed to scream out before Hound cut off his head. Suddenly the world became quiet, there were no more explosions, no more screaming, and no more wailing. Was Watanabe saying the truth or the lie? probably true, maybe Konoha did send their troops as a sacrifice for the bigger picture. It was one of the beautiful things about dying slowly: you could vent out all your anger all the while knowing it wouldn't change anything. But it was all disappearing now, our mission was finished, and the Tea Daimyo could clean up the mess his own daughter made. We lived in a cruel world, after all, a place where it's to kill or be killed.

"Fukiko, are you okay? What's going on with my daughter?" the Tea Daimyo ran towards his unconscious daughter with the help of his guards.

"Rest assured, Daimyo-sama, Lady Fukiko just fainted from the 'shock'. She should be waking up soon with no permanent damage." I told the Daimyo and let the father hug his daughter. The Daimyo hugged his daughter tight as whispered her name lightly. If he realized his daughter's betrayal, he didn't show it.

Eventually, the Daimyo issued the order for the clean up, as well as the order to take Lady Fukiko back to the care in the castle. We waited at the scene quietly as Zebra did his best to heal those scattered around.

"The Land of the Tea thank Konoha and the Fire Country for their assistance. This is the proof of the completion of mission as well as the payment, please gave Hokage-dono my thanks." the Tea Daimyo said in his usual voice with authority as he ordered his guards to gave us the scrolls.

"If you will, keep quiet about what happened with my daughter." So he did realize his daughter's grand betrayal. Obviously, for someone who values honour and conservatism so much, Fukiko's action would be a shame to the whole land.

"It would not be our decision, Daimyo-sama, it is Hokage-sama who will decide once he read our mission report." Hound answered coolly. We were Anbu, and we were loyal to no one but the Hokage. Except I am trying to dig up information in Anbu.

"I see, your loyalty is commendable. Do you need escorts to the border?" the Daimyo spoke in a cold voice, the undertone of his words hinting that we were asked to leave and never come back again. Hound shook his head immediately and thanked his offer. Team Ro left before we extended our expired welcomes. As for what would happen to Fukiko once she wakes up, or if Watanabe really loved her, I stopped thinking about it.

When we finally entered the Fire Country border, it was already in the middle of the night. We usually don't stop for the journey at night, but this time, all of us were beat from the battle earlier, especially Zebra who spent a lot of chakras healing the injured. Captain probably thought it would be better if we stopped for the night and recuperate.

"Rabbit, next time, keep your target in sight. It was because of her that things got out of hand in the end." Hound said to me coldly as we sat in the middle of a bunch of traps. Yeah, I did mess up with Fukiko, didn't I?

"Yes, Captain, I'm sorry for the trouble. I will accept the punishment." I answered as I dipped my head in shame.

"You are forgiven because you are new and you still have lots to learn. Next time, when your charge is not listening, knock them out and drag them away. Otherwise, they will be a hindrance and place themselves in more danger than if they were out cold." His voice softened a little, but some coldness remained.

"Yes, Captain, I understand." I kept my head down.

"Good, now let Zebra treat your left arm. Don't hide it from me, I know it's been bleeding for a while now." my Captain scolded me and I raised my arm in front of Zebra in embarrassment.

"Damn, what happened to you, there's a kunai stab wound and… is that a bite?" Zebra asked with disbelief when he examined my blood soaked arm. It wasn't a big injury, it's just that the stab was quite deep and the blood kept flowing.

"Yeah, the girl was quite ferocious to get to her lover, so she stabbed me and then she bit me." I said it as a joke and a few of my teammates laughed. Zebra glared at them, how he did it with the mask was still a mystery, but they immediately shut up. If there was one person you really don't want to piss off, it's Zebra, since he would be the one healing you when a mission went wrong.

"Young Rabbit, were you planning on hiding the injury until your arm rots? Next time, you let me treat the wound no matter how small you think it is, or are you the medic here?" Zebra said in an amazingly calm voice as he healed my wounds, but I could almost feel the cold aura rolling off of his hands.

"No, sir, I mean, Zebra. It won't happen again." I said immediately.

"Yeah, that girl was crazy alright, all of you men are lucky that you didn't have to guard her." Otter announced our misfortune and I couldn't agree more.

"You are just hung up because she kept on calling you 'old hag', which could have been true anyway." Just like that Falcon started a never ending argument. I was on Otter's side this time. Anyone would get hung up after being called names like that. I didn't think that anyone of us was the forgiving kind.

"Quiet, people, you guys are going to get killed because you are too loud. Learn to be more like Bear, he is the only one I can stand right now." Hound said with annoyance, and was it my imagination, or did Bear's aura beam at Captain's praise.

"Yes, Captain." the rest of the crowd answered simultaneously. Eventually, we were back to being alert and silent in the darkness, just like we were supposed to.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

Time Skip - seven months

Third Person POV

From the moment Kakashi met an Uchiha, he decided that they were born to cause trouble. It was not that Kakashi thought every Uchiha is evil. No, it was just a plain observation he made, since he had yet to personally meet an Uchiha who is trouble free.

Kakashi watched as his ex-pupil - well, he guess that she could still count as one now - stabbed a giant hole through the rock with her Chidori-infused ninjatō. It wasn't her usual electricity coating on the swords, no, it was definitely Chidori. The sound of chirping birds, the highly concentrate lightning chakra and the icy blue colour, there was no mistake, it was the Chidori he developed, the dangerous ninjutsu for assassination, but she evolved it into something more dangerous. She was able to channel the Chidori through her blade and keep the highly concentrated lightning a certain distance away from her without exploding. The large hole in the rock was a best proof of how dangerous the Chidori blade was, and now imagine it combined with duel-wielding kenjutsu.

He really shouldn't be surprised, to be perfectly honest. She mastered his Chidori in a month once he had actually started to teach her wholeheartedly when she joined Anbu. She achieved the Chidori Blade variation two months ago and had moved on to create other variations, and she was only practicing Chidori Blade to perfect it. She had to perfect it, or Kakashi would never allow her to use it in battle, no matter how much she pleaded. She thought it was because of her incident with the human-puppeteer, and partially, it was.

He totally thought that puppeteer deserved it. He knew she didn't do it intentionally, she had heard of Chidori, but that was only descriptions. He had never shown it to her personally, there was no way she could have picked it up from him. It was not a gentle ninjutsu, the first time he used it in a rush, well, he lost an eye. That was the main reason why he decided to teach it her even if he didn't know her well, so that the next time she found herself in a pinch, she could use it without electrocuting her arm off. The other reason, he supposed, was because of his guilt.

He had always known her to be a genius. From the first time he saw her fight in the Chunin exam, he knew, she was a prodigy just like her brother. However, it felt different when he had actually started teaching her. He accepted the teaching request because it was a favor from his senpai, and mostly because he still felt guilty for getting her teammate killed. He never expected her to be excelling when she was only taught once per week for thirty minutes. The moment he demonstrated a jutsu in front of her, he could almost see the wheels in her head turning, taking in all the information, all the pros and cons. He thought he wasn't surprised by her abilities any more, but when she joined Anbu despite all her hatred, he was surprised once again.

She was a natural born killer. He wasn't surprised when he found out her specialty would be assassination, but he was surprised when he found out how much she excelled at it. There really wasn't much he could teach her on that topic, maybe except how to infuse ninjutsu into her strikes instead of relying on her blades and body alone. He would have said that she still lacked experience, but she seemed to have that as well despite her young age. She was absolutely ruthless when killing her target, and usually, only in one strike. It was a bit unnerving, but once again, he thought about when he had noticed it the first time they met when she had killed that Kiri-nin. It was as if she was born for Anbu.

"Finally perfected the Chidori Blade now?" he asked the girl lazily as he watched her dispel the chakra and retracted her blade.

"I perfected it a week ago, you just refuse to see it." She stated blandly and he just ignored her. She probably did, but Kakashi couldn't let her use it unless he was absolutely certain she had full control of it.

"How was your attempt at incorporating Chidori with your Raiton: Rairyu no Mai?" He asked again, changing the topic. Maiko's expression turned sour for a bit before she spoke up, "well, it's going, still have trouble with control, though. It was hard to maintain control over the highly concentrated lightning chakra when it left my palms. I can maintain two Chidori-infused dragons for a few second before they blow up because of the instability."

Her self-invented jutsu was powerful, he had no doubt about it. It's ranged, remote controlled and it was fast. But the problem was, Chidori was neither ranged nor controlled. He was skeptical, but he was glad that she had made progress. For the most of the time, he kept silent and read his favorite novel series. No matter what other people says, the "Icha Icha" series was gold. He might be a genius shinobi, but he was not a good teacher, he had admitted that a long time ago.

"So what are we learning next, you said I need to work on my other nature releases." Maiko asked as she saw his book. She didn't scream for him to put it away, instead, she glared at him briefly before ignoring the books. That was another thing why Kakashi didn't mind teaching her so much, she never complained about his novel of choice. She might not approve of it, but she didn't nag him about it.

"Yes, I did say that, didn't I? While your fire and lightning releases are proficient, your earth releases are as weak as dirt. Your water release is coming along, but you lack wind releases." He knew he was pushing her, most jonin were only required to be proficient at two chakra natures. But with her potential, it would be a waste of sharingan if she didn't learn all she could in ninjutsu. "Take a rest for five minutes, then we will work on the strength of your earth release."

His pupil sat down by the rock and proceeded to clean and sharpen her blades. Kakashi couldn't remember what she told him about her swords. He could vaguely recall that the girl told him it was a gift from her mother. The mother she lost.

You see, the Uchiha Clan and Kakashi didn't really get along that well after the incident with his left eye, so Kakashi wasn't really paying attention to the Uchiha prodigies before, both of them. But it wasn't hard to understand the tender touch the girl placed on her swords as if it was the last remaining pieces of her broken life. Really, the Uchihas tried to put on that emotionless facade they called pride, but their eyes always gave away their deepest emotions.

"Say, Captain, are you ever going to tell me that Itachi was on your team." Kakashi's body stiffed for a second when he heard the quiet voice asking.

"No. How did you find out?" He said honestly. Just like Maiko said before, the mystery thing didn't do well between them.

"It wasn't hard, I imagine it was the same reason why I was placed on your team. Also, the other team members looked at me… differently when they saw my sharingan." Maiko answered quietly. Right, this was why he was always unnervingly annoyed by her, she was too perceptive.

"Your brother was on my team, then he got promoted to a Captain himself." Kakashi muttered.

"What was he like?" After a moment of silence, the girl asked hesitantly. Like so many other times, Kakashi didn't know how to answer that.

"He is your brother, you should know him better than I do." Immediately after he said it, he regretted it. Even if he was trying to avoid the topic, that was just too harsh of a reminder.

"I meant in Anbu. How did he adjust to Anbu?" No matter how hard she tried to hide it, there was always that tint of frustration and anger in her voice. Who was it directed towards? Itachi? Him? Or just life in general? Considering the circumstances, it was probably a bit of all three.

"He adjusted fine. He never had any problems as far as I could tell." Kakashi was speaking the truth, however, it was more like a partial truth. He wasn't particularly attentive towards the older Uchiha prodigy, especially when he was trying hard to get rid of all the connection with that clan. He supposed that he never assessed Uchiha Itachi to his full potential, and he finally took notice of him, he was already passing the bar for Anbu Captain with flying colour. When he finally remembered him, he committed a massacre and ran away.

"Really?" Maiko asked with skepticism, her eyes narrowed as if she was trying to piece together something far larger than he could comprehend.

"I don't know." Kakashi answered briefly because he honestly didn't know. However, he could understand her need for the 'why'. The 'what' was easy because everyone could see it with their own eyes, but the 'why', that was the hard part. He could understand her need for answers, her need for confirmations, or maybe even contradictions, that was why even if he shouldn't be talking about the S-rank traitor of Konoha, he still did, as long as she kept it within a reasonable boundary.

"Which team was he promoted to?" Now that's not within a reasonable boundary.

"You are pushing it. You know I can't answer that." There was a silence. Despite the fact he never lifted his eyes from the book, he didn't understand a single word on that page.

"Then what about the way they looked at me. It wasn't the rage towards a traitor or pity I felt rolling off of other people's face, there was something else, or something... Please don't tell me they feel bad because they heard all of my family except for one was killed, everybody heard that." As always, her instinct is exceptional.

Kakashi was contemplating how much he could tell her. It wasn't about the security clearance or anything like that, it was purely about her, how would she react? It was a hard question. Maiko was unpredictable, to him, she was always more than what she seemed. He still couldn't understand her current relationship with her genius-turned-traitor brother. Does she hate him? Does she want to kill him? Does she want to save him?

Kakashi had no ways of knowing that answer, nor did he have anyways of predicting her behaviour. You see, despite his limited contact with the Uchiha Clan, even he would see that Maiko was an anomaly. Like Obito, Shisui, and to some extent, Itachi. She was in an entirely different category than the trend her clan seemed to follow, but she didn't seem similar to any of the other anomalies Kakashi had seen.

It was this unpredictability that made Kakashi felt a sense of danger. Sure, he could surveil her every move to make sure she didn't do something stupid. However, he couldn't figure out, at least not yet, what she would do next. And that made him feel so useless in taking any precautionary strategies.

"We were tasked with retrieving any survivors from the Uchiha Massacre, and the disposal of bodies. We found you two dying in the main house that night, and we saw the results of the massacre first hand." He said after much thinking. It wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the whole truth. There was no way he could tell her about the real objective of that mission which was personally led by the Sandaime Hokage. There was just no way. If possible, he wished she'd never find out. The mystery thing didn't work well between them because both of them saw things deeper than the appearance. So he responded with the best disguise possible, lacing the lie with the truth, and hoping this time, that her instinct might be less perceptive.

In the end, it was a summon from Hokage-sama that saved him. He felt his shoulder flare up a bright red with a searing sensation, unlike the ones he uses to summon his team, which only cause the tattoo to flare a dark red. He looked at Maiko, who obviously felt the summon as well since she was staring at her sleeve where the bright red tattoo would have been.

"Come on, Hokage-sama is summoning our team, we don't want to keep him waiting." With that, he ran, as far away from his newest subordinate as possible so he wouldn't have to face her perceptive eyes. Even though he knew that behind him, the thirteen-year-old girl would be following him closely, assessing everything with those haunting eyes. After all, he was stuck. He was stuck with her the moment the Hokage decided to place her on his team, to place her under his care, as if dealing with Uchihas was his specialty.

It really wasn't.

Considering his track record with Uchihas, one Uchiha was killed because of him, and the other, committed the ultimate act of treachery while he couldn't even lift a finger to stop it. If he didn't have enormous respect for the Sandaime Hokage, he would have thought it was a cruel act of sick humour to give him a third one, just to see how horribly he would fail this time.

Complicated businesses, those Uchihas and their sharingans.

A/N: Okay, so I think this fanfic is more or less arranged kind of like a TV show, where every arc is like a season. So at the beginning, it's more episodic in nature but still following a major point. As each arc comes to an end, things will probably be less episodic and more linked together.

Thanks for reading, please review if you feel like it! Next update in a week, on next Saturday.