A/N: So, I'm back, with my lovely internet just in time to post this chapter. Anyway, like the title of this chapter suggests, this mini-arc is going to be longer than the usual (around 5 to 6 chapters probably), and this is only the prelude of the mini-story.

Chapter 20 - Prelude

Time Skip - 15 months later, January (Maiko: 14, Sasuke: 9)

I stood in front of the desolated compound, staring at the dusty Uchiha insignia hanging on the top of the gate. An ancient clan with a powerful kekkei genkai, all of its former glory gone in one night, reduced into a dark part of the forgotten history. Sasuke believed the clan would never be forgotten and that he would restore it to its former brilliance, but I wasn't so sure. Looking at the crumbling buildings and the broken walls in front of me, I knew instantly that it wasn't something that time alone could repair.

"Come on, Sasuke, let's go," I said quietly to my little brother standing behind me. We'd been avoiding coming back here for almost two years, but it's time and we couldn't run forever. Sasuke followed me silently, I wondered if he ever realized that he was so easy to read. His expression was tense and bitter, so full of sorrow and hatred.

So what's left? I thought as I walked into the lifeless compound I once called home. The bodies were all gone, whoever did the cleanup sure did a good job, not even a speck of blood left. But there was other evidence they couldn't erase. The broken stone walls, the slashed open doors, and this heavy sense of death in the air.

"Sasuke, go get anything you need. Be quick, we are not staying long." The boy gave me a small nod before running off in heavy steps. Sasuke needed training scrolls for the Uchiha style taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu. Especially taijutsu, since he has reached a point where he has exhausted himself in practicing all the previous moves he learned, and I couldn't teach him since I never really learned it well. My taijutsu was something different from the clan's, and even though I offered to teach him mine, he wouldn't change his old style.

I scanned the dusty rooms in the house I used to live in, saying that it was empty was an understatement. All the furniture has been removed, but there were still the scorch marks on the floor and the hole on the wall that reminded me of the pain, the rage and the helplessness I had felt.

I didn't linger any longer, instead, I went straight to my parents' room. Despite the fact my father was the head of the clan, his room was simple and clean. Simple furniture, plain decorations and overall, unspectacular. I didn't know what I would find, father rarely kept anything important in the compound; most of the files and investigations were kept in the Konoha Police Station which had been confiscated by the council after the massacre.

Father… a conflicting character in my life. There was a period I had hated him, for forcing all those things on us, for making us the tools. However, it was only after the massacre that I found out my father never actually filed the official document for exilement; never demanded me to return the Uchiha name or the Uchiha properties. I didn't understand him that much, and I supposed that was because he only ever showed that one side to me except the moment of his death. Had I wronged him, maybe he had reasons? It was not like I hadn't thought about it, but I was acting like a child, a very spoiled child. But I supposed I had paid for that, now that I would never get the chance to know him; to understand him.

I tried to keep the room as clean as possible when I went through the drawers, I didn't want the room to look like someone had broken in after all. Despite all the bloodshed in the living room, none of the bedrooms in the main house seemed to ever have been stained in the same manner. They were dusty, yes, but so peaceful and organized, giving the illusion that nothing had ever happened.

To my disappointment, I couldn't find the things I wanted, Father must have kept all the files in the police station, which I had no access to. However, there was one more place I needed to check. My last hope, I thought bitterly as I exited my parents' room. I turned around the corner of the hallway until I reached a bedroom near the koi pond. Here it was, Itachi's room.

I took a deep breath before I opened the shōji screen. I used to think that those paper doors were so thin that they couldn't keep anything a secret. I was so wrong. It was both relieving and painful to see that my brother's room was just like the way I remembered it. A simple bed where we shared dango together, a simple drawer where he kept all his things, and a simple closet with his clothes and hidden weapons.

I didn't want to move anything in the room, maybe it should just be forever frozen like this. But there was something I needed to find, an answer I wanted to reach no matter what. Reluctantly, I moved my body. I walked over to the drawer first and I pulled open the top most layer. Immediately, my eyes widened at the content of the drawer; it was empty, except for one piece of folded paper.

It can't be this easy, it shouldn't, I thought with disbelief as I fished the paper out of the drawer. However, when I opened the paper and saw the content, I had to believe it. I found it, Shisui's suicide note.

It was a plain piece of paper, a pure white letter paper with basic black ink. I glossed my fingers over the words, they were no doubt Shisui's handwriting. The funny and optimistic Shisui-senpai, and now he was reduced to just a piece of paper. Silently, I read over the words.

I'm tired of the duties...

there is no future for the Uchiha...

and for me...

I cannot walk out the "path" anymore

I read the words and reread them so many times that I lost count. What do you mean, Shisui? What are you talking about? Shisui had always been a model member of the clan, skillful and dutiful. However, I knew he was different from all those arrogant clan members. He was an optimist and he was Itachi's best friend.

What did he mean by the 'duties'? The clan duties? I knew the rules in the clan and the police department was strict and rigid, but that hardly seemed to be something Shisui would die for. So what duties were you talking about, Shisui? What did you have to do? Or most likely, what did the clan force you to do?

What really worried me was the second part, 'there is no future for the Uchiha… and for me…'. It almost sounded like… he knew. It sounded like a premonition for what happened, the clan didn't survive, and neither did he. It was so accurate that it scared me like hell. Did he know about the Uchiha massacre beforehand? Did he plan for this with Itachi? If so, Shisui, did you really commit suicide? I wanted to ask him, I wanted to scream at him. But, he wouldn't able to answer, no one could answer me.

"Mai-nee-chan." I almost jumped at the sound of my little brother. Instantly, I turned around and I saw Sasuke's cold eyes. He looked almost… ghostly.

"What are you doing here." He said quietly, with a hint of betrayal in his voice. Right, I was standing in Itachi's room, holding a piece of paper as I dazed around. I probably looked like I was reminiscing about Itachi, the one person he hated the most right now.

"Nothing, I was just… looking for something. Did you get all you need? Let's go then." I smiled at him as I folded the piece of paper in my hands. His eyes trailed after me, or more precisely, my hand as I walked out of the room and closed the shōji door.

"Is that Shisui-nii-san's suicide note?" Suddenly, Sasuke asked. I was stunned for a moment before I turned my attention to him.

"How did you…"

"I saw it once before, the day after Shisui-nii-san died," Sasuke said in a small voice. I stayed silently for a moment, before urging my brother to continue. With a deep breath, Sasuke spoke again, "That day, the day all of this happened, a bunch of clan members came. They were questioning Nii-san. They said Shisui-san had committed suicide, and they said they were investigating his death. They handed Nii-san the suicide note, asking him to give it to Anbu for investigation." He paused a bit before continuing, "They accused him of killing Shisui-nii."

I stopped dead in my tracks, suddenly remembering all of it. When I came to the Uchiha compound looking for answers, some Uchiha clansmen were calling Itachi traitor for killing Shisui. So that's what happened before I came, the fiasco that ended in Itachi kicking everyone's ass.

"Did he really kill…" "No." I stopped Sasuke's question before he could finish it.

"But he had his Mangekyou Sharingan, and he told me that killing your best friend is the only way to gain the Mangekyou!" He yelled at me with anger, betrayal, and confusion mixed in his voice. He was angry at me for putting my unwavering faith in Itachi's innocence, and I couldn't blame him. Sometimes, even I wondered if I was just believing what I wanted to believe.

"That's not the only way to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan, he wasn't telling you the truth," I answered him.

"How would you know!" Unconvinced, he yelled at me again. I didn't answer him immediately, instead, all I did was activate my Mangekyou Sharingan and let the tri-petaled flowers be reflected in his dark eyes.

Sasuke widened his eyes and took a step back. I uttered slowly to him, "The Mangekyou Sharingan is activated by witnessing the trauma of a loved one's death. I activated them when I witnessed the murders of Mom and Father. I know, Sasuke, because I have already experienced the curse." Sasuke was rendered speechless, all he did was stare at my eyes. I didn't deactivate it or close them, I just let him keep on staring. He needed to know, the pain and responsibility of activating the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Let's go, Sasuke. We should really go." I said to him gently. Quickly, I walked past him, not willing to stay in this place any longer.

"Wait, Nee-chan," Sasuke called me out from behind. Reluctantly, I stopped and turned around.

"Please, teach me how to use the Sharingan." This time, my eyes widened when I saw him staring at me with a pair of red eyes, there was one tomoe present in each of his eyes. Right, he saw the massacre, how could I be so stupid not to notice. I laughed bitterly at myself; so finally, the process of using emotional pain to gain power had begun for him.

"I need to be strong, if I am to kill Itachi and protect you, Nee-chan. I was too scared to remember what happened two years ago, and I was afraid to access the Sharingan. But I need power, I need to be strong." The nine-year-old boy in front of me proclaimed as he continued to stare at me with those red eyes.

Should I? Or maybe not. He is so young, but then again, when has Sharingan ever waited until one's ready. I guess I need to teach him how to control it, or he would do it himself anyway. It's better that I can supervise him, after all, uncontrolled powers are dangerous, and he needs all he can get to survive.

"Okay, I will teach you, but you can't use it on others carelessly unless I say so," I responded. Sasuke nodded solemnly as he walked up to me so I could hug him under the cold December weather.

"Can we go now, I think we are overstaying our visit," I asked again, and finally, Sasuke nodded and walked with me.

"Nee-chan, I forgot to tell you something. That day when I saw the clan members hand Itachi the suicide note, they said Itachi and Shisui-nii were the only two absent from the clan meeting the night before, that's why they are suspicious of him." Sasuke suddenly said as we left the Uchiha compound.

"The meeting?" I asked as I narrowed my eyes.

"Yes, Father and every other clan member had been having them almost every night at the Naka Shrine before… that day. Father said they were important and they never came back until really late. That's why I was always practicing outside until late at night."

Meetings at the shrine? Why were they having them so often? I was confused again as if there was anytime this whole thing was clear. I wasn't present in the clan for three years before the massacre, and when I returned the day before the massacre, I was surprised at the abnormal tension in the clan.

"Itachi said something, he said the clan was hindering his ability to reach the height of his capacity. He said 'I've lost all hope for this pathetic clan'." Sasuke finished the sentence coldly. I didn't push him to say more, because what he told me was already shocking enough to process.

Again, Itachi also seemed to predict the future of the Uchiha clan just like Shisui did. I am sure now, that something had happened to the clan, or something was happening in the clan. Those meetings, they were for something important, a crisis that could affect the entire clan? Or maybe a decision that could change the fate of the clan. Whatever it was, it made Itachi and Shisui snap right before the crisis or whatever the clan was discussing happened.

That thought didn't comfort me because all it did was add to my long list of mysteries to solve. The clan, it always had to be the clan. I wondered if I hadn't reject Father's plans for me that night after the Chunin exam, if I hadn't been exiled from the clan, would I know what the hell had been happening in the clan? Probably, if I followed the path Father had planned for me, it would have landed me in the centre of the clan power and politics.

So would I be able to change the outcome if I knew the trigger? Maybe, maybe not, but since I don't even know what the trigger was, I never had the chance. Before this day, I had pushed off countless regrets and guilt about making my brother take my place in Anbu, about letting him being confined into a dark fate for me. But never before, I had felt so much regret, so much guilt for being exiled out of the clan.

If only I could return to that evening; if only I had a second chance. I would accept whatever Father had planned for me, only for the sake of staying with Itachi and Shisui and going through whatever they had to go through. If only I wasn't a coward who ran away, I might not be able to stop what happened to the clan, but at the very least, I would know the truth.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

Sasuke jumped up in the air and gave me a roundhouse kick. Immediately, I bent my body and dodged back. Before he could retract his leg, I grabbed it and flipped him to the ground. Once he recovered from the impact, he got away with a replacement technique and I let him go.

Before Sasuke appeared, a little ball of orange came into my vision. Naruto attacked from the back, but instead of aiming for my head, he ran up to me and lowered his body at the last moment and aimed for my liver. I smiled as I sidestepped and avoided the punch. Finally, he was not just running up to the enemy and aiming at the most predictable places.

Naruto's attack wasn't finished, with a sharp turn, his attacking direction changed and he slammed his elbow towards my neck. Immediately, I blocked the attack with the arm guard. His strength was much better now, perhaps his endless streams of energy helped in physical exercises. He tried a few more attack at some of the critical points I taught him before scurrying away, realizing that I was blocking them all easily.

A wave of shurikens immediately followed, no doubt, Sasuke was on the move again. I dodged the shurikens as they flew by me and landed on the ground. Suddenly, my eyes narrowed at the ninja wires attached to the shurikens. Of course, he is an Uchiha, and Uchihas love this trick.

A dozen medium sized fireballs followed the wires and were ready to burn me to crisp. Right away, I fired dozens of water bullets from my palms. Two or three water bullets crashed into one fireball at once, and it was enough to diminish the burning flames.

When the smoke cleared, Sasuke instantly appeared by my side, with his red Sharingans spinning in his eyes. He threw a punch at my ribs, this time, faster and more precise than before. I turned my body and let his arm sail straight past me. Straightaway, he stopped himself from moving with the momentum and ducked down, attempting to sweep my feet off the ground.

I jumped up slightly to avoid his legs, but he rotated his body on the ground and kicked his other leg up directly towards me. I was curious as to what he would do next, so all I did was block with my arm guards, and boy does he kick hard. With one kick, I was sent straight up towards the sky.

Sasuke disappeared from my vision and soon I felt a presence above me. I turned just in time to see Sasuke rotating his body for a powerful kick in the air, the kind that could send someone down to the ground and make a crater.

Just as his leg reached me, I move my body slightly so that his attack would slip past me by an inch. His eyes widened as I kneed him in the spine and we fell from midair. As his momentarily froze from the impact, I grabbed his shoulder and sent him to the ground instead. When we landed, I was on my feet and he was on his chest.

Out of nowhere, a bunch of ninja wires sprung up from the ground, intending to strap me. Clearly, I saw the sharp shurikens and kunais attached to the wires. Naruto, that sneaky little ball of orange, set up this trap beforehand. Unfortunately, the trap was at most a high genin level, and with a small replacement technique, I displaced myself with a rock nearby and silently hid in the trees.

"Awesome! Did we get her?" Naruto yelled with joy as he ran up towards the jungle of wires. Sasuke grunted as he made his way up from the ground. With one look at the messy wires and shurikens, he frowned.

"No, you dobe, there's no way Mai-nee-chan would fall for that. Keep your eyes open, she must be around here somewhere." Sasuke said as he tensed his body and moved closer to Naruto, the tomoes in his sharingans spinning furiously, completely alert and cautious.

I smiled at the duo as I body flickered behind them. "You are correct," I whispered as I place my hands on both of their shoulders and sent a small jolt of electricity into their body. The two nine-year-olds stumbled and fell to the ground. Naruto was lamenting loudly, while my adorable little brother stared at me with annoyance in his eyes,

"Don't give me that look, you started the whole ninjutsu deal," I said to my little brother and he turned his slightly red face away to avoid my gaze.

"That was so cool, Nee-chan, you need to teach me that." Naruto flailed his arms around to shake off the paralysis from his body. Soon, I had a little orange furball jumping around my legs.

"Good job, Naruto, now you are finally able to remember the critical spots I told you about, the key now is to practice. Once you are able to land a good hit that can stun the enemy, locking onto them wouldn't be a problem." I warned. I had offered to teach Naruto my style of taijutsu and he had accepted since he told me he wasn't doing so great in the academy taijutsu lessons. Amazingly, he had picked up the style fast, probably because he had no permanent style beforehand unlike Sasuke who was so used to the Uchiha style. Although I had my doubts about whether or not my style was the best fit for him, since he was so bright and straightforward, and breaking people's bones from the shadow seemed too much for him.

"You got it, Nee-chan, I will practice hard on Sasuke, he won't be able to escape from my locks ever! Dattebayo!" Naruto said excitedly as he gave Sasuke a challenging glare. Quickly, I placed my hand on my face to get ready for the storm of bickering coming next.

"Yeah right, Dobe, I'd like to see you try." "Hey, I wasn't the one who had his face kissing the ground." "Shut up, Mai-nee-chan was going easy on you." "Definitely not, you just don't want to believe I can beat you!" "Cause you can't dobe!" "Can do! Dattebayo!" …

"Stop!" Finally, I yelled at the duo with pure frustration. "Naruto, how's your chakra control exercise?" He suddenly became silent.

"I thought so. There are trees around here, a river that's a few hundred meters away and leaves lying around, why don't you start on something." I suggested. Immediately, Naruto's excitement disappeared.

"But it's so hard, Nee-chan, I really tried."

"I know, your chakra reserves are huge, so much larger than normal shinobi, that's why it's hard for you to control your chakra. But you know what, that means you have so much potential, you just need to be able to control your chakra at least to some degree before I can teach you any other ninjutsu. Otherwise, you will just blow up the forest." I explained to Naruto patiently. It wasn't hard to get the information that Naruto was the jinchuriki of Kyuubi. The secret only pertained to Sasuke's generation and Shun's hints definitely helped to put things together.

Despite the fact of it being an S-rank secret, the people around here were so prejudiced that it was hard not to know it. He was just a boy to me; a boy with the potential of being a nuclear weapon. Life was unfair to him, just as life was unfair to Sasuke, but he was not the one to blame.

Naruto nodded reluctantly as he went off to do the tree walking exercise. Finally, I turned my attention to Sasuke - my little competitive brother who was still sitting on the ground.

"How's your ankle?" I asked, watching with amusement as Sasuke's face turned red again, pouting and refusing to answer.

"Come on, there's no need to hide, I've been there once. Collecting the sensory information from the Sharingan and acting on it are two different things, that's why there was a lag time between seeing something and acting it out. When you tried to compensate for the lag time, your body overloads, and it's easy to hurt yourself." I spoke to him calmly as I kneeled in front of him, checking his bruised ankle.

"But you mastered your Sharingan when you were five! Father told me you are a genius, a once in a century miracle who activated your sharingan at birth, and I am learning Sharingan so slowly! At this rate, I will never be as good as you or Itachi." I listened quietly to his rant. He didn't understand, I cheated even before I was born, and Itachi, he was forced by the elders and his own father to activate his sharingan. I couldn't say that to him, or he would get more enraged.

"Not true, I believe you have the most potential of all of us, you should believe in yourself." I comforted him as I bandaged his ankle with dressings. His injury should be fine, it's just a small twist. However, being the troubled child he was, he didn't answer me. After a few moments of silence, I finally asked: "Anything else wrong? Might as well spill it all out."

"The Academy wouldn't let me graduate early, they said the policy changed." He muttered slowly.

"Really? Is that all this is about?" I asked, but before he could object, I continued, "It's not necessarily a bad thing you know. If you are promoted into genin, you would have to take missions like sorting crops and catching cats. If you improve your skill before that, your future sensei might be nice enough to make you skip those missions." Obviously, heartwarming encouragement wouldn't work for my brother, so yes, I was baiting him with practical logic. Trust me, he spent quite some time when he was little listening to my horrifying tales of boring D-rank missions.

"Anyways, start your Sharingan slowly, after a while, you will get used to the speed of Sharingan and your body will adjust to it. More so, your taijutsu was really well done today, could use a bit more speed, but again, that is just my suggestion. You get to choose how to improve your style. We will start on some Sharingan genjutsu next time, okay?" I ruffled his hair and Sasuke grunted in annoyance, but eventually, he nodded. Honestly, I had no idea when will be the 'next time'. My mission schedule was weird and packed, and there were the emergency missions that come out of nowhere. Today was a day where I was supposed to be free, and so far, I was still free, but you never knew when the next mission is coming.

"Am I interrupting some sibling bonding time?" I tilted my head slightly to face my orange haired roommate, who still looked as casual as ever. Before I could answer, Sasuke instantly yelled "Yes!" I gave Shun a small chuckle and said, "You heard him."

"Well sorry, kid, but I need to borrow your sister, her Shishou is the one asking," Shun said as he rolled his eyes.

"Akira-shishou? Why?" I asked. Shun gave me a shrug and he answered "He said it was to fulfill our duties as his students, so get up and let's go. He is expecting us in ten minutes."

"And why are you only telling me this now?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Figured you couldn't make excuses about a mission if I clearly catch you off-duty right before the thing."

"Cunning, sounds just like you," I commented and he just smiled back at me innocently. "Sorry, Sasuke, but Shishou's calling. Go to the hospital to check out your ankle, I mean it." I hugged my grumpy brother one last time before taking off with Shun.

"Now can you tell me what exactly we are doing?" I asked him again, but Shun just shook his head mysteriously "You will know soon." Eventually, I followed him to training ground seventeen. When we arrived, I immediately saw Akira-shishou's familiar figure, along with three others.

"Finally, the VIPs today. I thought Maiko isn't coming, seeing how busy you are." Our sensei greeted us with a smile.

"I thought the same until Shun roped me into this ten minutes ago." I said and gave Shun a glare which he ignored, then I asked: "Anyways, what are we doing here?"

"Shun, Maiko, meet my new genin team. You three, introduce yourselves to my last genin team, your senpais." Akira-shishou pointed towards the three small figures standing behind him and I trailed my eyes on those three newly promoted genins.

"Hi, I am Kanzaki Satoru, uh, nice to meet you, senpai?" The first boy with dark brown hair and freckles said uncertainly.

"Nice to meet you, Shun-senpai! Maiko-senpai! My name is Takemoto Momo! Please, take care of me!" The polite little kunoichi with a purple ponytail gave us a deep bow. I was mildly surprised by the respectful attitude she showed me, usually I was always the one calling others senpai, due to my young age. The feeling of having a kouhai was… refreshing.

"Ryuu. Just Ryuu." I turned my attention to the snappy voice of the third genin, then I was shocked. The boy had unruly black hair, with a pair of harsh cold eyes. From his widened eyes and shocked expression, I knew he recognized me as well. He was that boy in Kusagakure.

"Don't mind Ryuu, he a bit socially withdrawn, but he's a good kid." Akira-sensei patted the boy's back. I heard Shun whisper behind me "Sounds like someone I know", but I ignored him and fixated my eyes on the boy. If he was here, then that means he escaped Nishikawa's villa, came to Konoha, enrolled in the Academy and graduated within a year and a half. Now, it could be done, I supposed. The last time I checked, his chakra coil was much more developed than the other kidnapped children and I wouldn't be surprised if he had shinobi heritage in his family. But nevertheless, his appearance spoke of suspicion and trouble.

However, as long as he could keep his mouth shut and eyes closed, we shouldn't have a problem keeping distances from each other and leave each other alone. I was not that interested in his life story that I would destroy the two sides of my carefully balanced life.

"Anyways, I thought the two of you can give my young students some advice, and they can ask you some questions about shinobi life…" Both Shun and I stared at Akira-sensei looking unimpressed. "Hey, I spent three years with you and I wrote you a recommendation letter." Akira-sensei pointed at Shun, "And you, I taught you for six years." He pointed at me next, "This is the attitude I get?"

"Calm down Sensei, we will do it." Shun finally said before Akira-sensei could get anymore enraged. "Good. I'll see you guys tomorrow, take care of them." Just like that, Akira-sensei forgot all the unhappiness and disappeared.

"He just made us babysit, didn't he." I sighed as I looked towards the direction where he disappeared to. Beside me, Shun just shook his head and then he turned his attention to the genins.

"So introduction time, I am Yamanaka Shun, a former student of Akira-sensei," Shun said with a perfectly polite smile on his face. A few months ago, he was promoted to tokubetsu jonin with his specialty in sensing and information gathering. We had yakiniku to celebrate his promotion, and for his promotion gift, he made me agree to pay for his share of the rent for that month… Shun was better at this kind of things than me, so I was fully prepared to let him deal with the genins. Unfortunately, he didn't think so.

"And the socially awkward girl next to me is Uchiha Maiko, a former student, and apprentice of Akira-sensei, until she got transferred to Kami knows where." I kicked him for that one, trying to wipe that sneaky grin off of his face.

"So, senpai, can you give us some advice on Akira-sensei, like what he's like and what we should do?" Satoru was the first to speak up. The young genin seemed eager and excited and I couldn't blame him. The feeling of craving more adventures must be more or less universal in this world.

"Don't piss him off, he likes teamwork, hates people that are late." Shun summarized as I sat on a rock behind him with no intention of joining in. Shun continued to talk about never trying to bribe Sensei or complain about D-rank missions, and I just listened passively. Those were the good memories, the nicer ones before one of us died.

"Umm, Maiko-senpai, if you don't mind me asking, do you have any trouble working as a kunoichi? I mean, I heard female shinobis are quite rare, and I am just wondering…" The girl, Momo, suddenly asked me. Her voice seemed to fall as she spoke as if she thought I would be angry or something.

"Yes and no, there will always be those who try to undermine us for being young or being a female. But we have the natural advantage of looking more harmless and thus enemies tend to let their guard down around us. Besides, gender doesn't really matter in battle, you are either strong enough to survive, or you don't." I said plainly, not sugarcoating anything. It was not my personality to do so anyway.

"Say, Maiko-senpai, you seem really young, like a lot younger than Shun-senpai, you almost look like our age. Are you two really genin teammates?" Oh yes, I was expecting this question, for the millionth time, everyone felt the need to question my age (except for my Anbu teammates, they don't care). I could hear Momo trying to quietly yell at Satoru with rage for being rude, and Shun was whispering in my ears "Don't kill him, whatever you do, don't kill him."

"Yes, we are teammates, we both graduated around eight years ago. The Academy system was a bit different back then, and early graduates were allowed as long as we passed the final exam. Following up with Momo's question, this is exactly the kind of question you can ignore in the workplace." I said as I gave the genins a chilling smile. Satoru took a step back as he felt my increasingly dark aura and Momo's face reddened with embarrassment. Ryuu, however, calmly stood his ground, as expected of a survivor who fought off my killing intent.

"So… moving on, any other questions?" Shun clapped his hands in an attempt to ease the tension and both Momo and Satoru relaxed their breath at Shun's nonchalant voice. I wasn't kidding when I said that Shun was better at this kind of stuff than me. It seemed to me that the only children I have a tolerance of these days were Sasuke and Naruto, and even then, they constantly gave me headaches.

"Just one more. Where is your other teammate? Genin cells are composed of three genins and one jonin, right? But there are only two of you here." Ryuu questioned in a detached tone. Immediately, Shun and I snapped our attentions to him. There was a sharp inhale coming from his teammates, and Momo shouted at him "Ryuu! Akira-sensei warned us not to ask that! It's so rude!" However, the person who instigated all this just stood there defiantly, as if mocking "What are you going to do?"

There were a thousand ways we could have answered that question, 'he is busy', 'he is out on a mission', 'he simply doesn't like meeting people'... Thousands of lies we could have told without even batting an eyelash. However, without hesitation, both Shun and I answered calmly and clearly "He died."

There was an awkward silence before I continued, "He was killed in action when we were still in a genin team." The three genins stared at us stunned, Satoru seemed to be in shock; Momo brought her hands up to cover her mouth, she seemed devastated; even Ryuu, who was cold as a stone, widened his eyes at the revelation. What exactly did they think the answer was going to be? That he peacefully retired at the age of seventeen?

"Look, shinobi life isn't all roses and glories, it's full of bloodshed and danger. If you can't accept that, it's best to walk out. Think about it, it doesn't have to be now, but you need to come to a conclusion before your first C-rank mission." Shun warned the young genins. Slowly and mechanically, the three children before us nodded. More likely than not, they would continue down this path despite the warnings. If the shinobis all left due to mere fear, then there wouldn't be a village left to run. It was only when something actually happened, then, these genins' mental strength would really be tested.

Suddenly, I felt a searing flare on my right shoulder. I was summoned through my Anbu tattoo. "Hey, Shun, I'm needed for a mission, so have fun with your info-sessions," I whispered to Shun as I picked myself up from the rock. First, he glared at me as if saying "Don't you dare leave me in this mess", then eventually he just waved his hands and shooed me off.

"Tell Sasuke for me that I'm off on a mission!" I yelled back as I ran towards the underground Anbu facility. I didn't need to wait for a response since I trust Shun would do it anyways. This mission came right on time, I was just getting suffocated by the awkward and depressing atmosphere. Uchiha Maiko had too much history and abnormalities; Rabbit, on the other hand, had no history and personal concerns.

'Sometimes, I just need a break from life,' was what I had thought before I went on this mission. If only I knew then what it actually consisted of, I would have taken my chances with bickering children and awkward conversations.

A/N: My story is inching closer and closer to the start of canon (in a snail-like speed). Oh dear, I think I'm making Maiko's life too trouble-free right now, so someone very unpleasant will crash the party soon. Muahahaha (evil laughter...)

Next update on Saturday as usual!