A/N: So it's been a while, I know. And this chapter is a bit shorter than I usually put out. I know. I've had a ton of writer's block as of late but since writing is my escape, I'm trying to push through. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Leave a review!


CHAPTER III

KICHIRO

The trees ahead of Kichiro began to thin and he waited for a signal from Mirai before he made his descent to the forest floor. Kataki and Setsuka followed close behind him, landing in to his sides as he led the charge. His Sharingan guided him through the tangled branches until he landed silently on the ground. His eyes darted around as he scanned the area. When he had determined that everything was clear, Kichiro made a hand gesture and the team fell to his side.

They moved quickly, darting through the bushes until Mirai suddenly raised her hand. Kichiro halted and he looked for Setsuka and Kataki. Mirai motioned for them to take to the trees and they did so. Her red ringed eyes looked to Kichiro and she cocked her head towards the clearing. The Uchiha boy could see several figures dressed in dark grey and black trimmed with blue kanji. They were moving quickly and Kichiro heard people screaming and could smell smoke. He frowned at Mirai and she nodded. With a quick glance at the trees, Kichiro made his move.

He emerged from the underbrush, moving like a train. He summoned chakra to his hands and just as one of the ravagers turned to face him, Kichiro plowed his fist into his chest and slammed him into the ground. The dust provided enough cover for Mirai to move in at his side, slicing down the three other raiders. On the roof, Setsuka and Kataki beat the enemy into submission until one of them attempted to flee to the ground. Kichiro caught the woman out of the corner of his eye and flung a kunai toward her, grazing her shoulder when she glanced back and ducked. Kichiro sucked his teeth and Mirai disappeared in a black haze. In a few seconds, she returned with the girl restrained in her arms.

Before anyone could say anything, the girl performed a hand seal and Mirai countered with a few of her own. Kichiro watched each movement and counter with his Sharingan, registering in his head the genjutsu battle until he saw Mirai miss a cue and the girl capitalize. A kunai flew from Kichiro's hand and the enemy kunoichi barely had time to draw her own hands back as the blade passed her.

When it was almost to the wall to the kunoichi's right, Kichiro performed a substitution with his kunai, appearing in a puff of smoke. He kneed her in the side of the head and laid all of his weight on her, bending her arm out of place to restrain her. He heard a sharp hiss of pain escape from beneath her mask and Kichiro glanced back at Mirai.

"Thanks," she said softly. When Kataki and Setsuka landed in front of them, Mirai pointed. "Put her under. We're taking her back." Kichiro felt the girl squirm underneath him until Kataki pressed two chakra infused fingers to her neck and she suddenly went still. Now frozen in place, the girl in black was stiff as a board.

Kichiro stood to his feet and looked around, taking in his surroundings with the Sharingan. "Are there any survivors?" he asked. Setsuka nodded.

"A few, I think."

Kataki sucked his teeth. "We should've been here earlier. These bastards…" Kichiro blinked at the boy.

"We did what we could," he replied. "Hopefully, we made this road safer."

Mirai folded her arms as she looked around. Her narrow red gaze finally settled on Kichiro. "I have a feeling that this attack has nothing to do with attacking a trade route." She nodded towards the fiery buildings, burning to their foundation. "Random bandits interested in trade routes don't raze entire towns as part of a caravan attack."

"You think there's something else here?" Setsuka asked, twirling the large sword in her hand into the sheath on her back. "Then why would they burn the village down?"

"They said it was underground," a man said. Kichiro turned his gaze to him and saw a gray-haired man approaching. Behind him, there were three other people, a woman and two boys.

Mirai reached them first. "Are any of you injured?" The man nodded and pointed to one of the boys. Kichiro noticed now that the younger of the boys was dragging his leg and holding on to the older's arm. With his Sharingan, Kichiro could see where the boy's shin bone was broken and attempting to break the skin. He moved towards them and the boy suddenly cowered behind the older boy and woman.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you," Kichiro said calmly. Setsuka nodded and smiled, taking care to keep her lips tight to avoid showing her sharpened teeth.

"He's a healer," she said.

"And one of our best," Kataki added. Kichiro tried to avoid blushing from the compliment and instead looked at the injured boy. He didn't meet his gaze.

"Your eyes," the older boy said, frowning. "They're scaring him." Kichiro returned the frown, inwardly sighing at yet another prejudiced and judgmental person in his life. Before he could swallow his pride, the older man stepped in.

"He doesn't know who you are. Stories of the Uchiha predate and escape him." The old man paused and looked directly at Kichiro's squadmates then to him. "The man that led this attack had your eyes. He had a Sharingan."

Kichiro felt frozen in place for a moment and his mind went immediately to Sosei. His breaths quickened and he felt his heart tighten in his chest. A firm hand took his shoulder and Kichiro glanced to his side to see Kataki. Gulping, Kichiro tried to stabilize himself to keep from reeling from the shock. His mind traveled from point to point. The Hokage had said that they had found Sosei, not what he had been doing. But from the way the girl and her companions were dressed, they could've been from any band of marauders except they were shinobi. Kichiro's mind raced before suddenly halting.

The answer lie in finding what they were looking for.

Looking back to the injured boy, Kichiro sighed. "If I deactivate my Sharingan, will you let me heal your leg?"

The young boy looked to the older boy and then to the old man who smiled at him. Slowly, the injured boy nodded. Kichiro approached and felt the perception leave his eyes. Nevertheless, he remembered the specific breaks in the boy's leg. Summoning chakra to his hand like his mother showed him, he placed a palm over the boy's shin,mending the breaks and piecing together the pieces.

When the work was done, Kichiro looked at the boy and gave him a polite smile. "How's your leg feel?"

The boy smiled shyly. "G-good."

"What's your name?" Kichiro asked. "My name is Kichiro." The young boy smiled shyly.

"M-My name is Genki."

"Nice to meet you, kid." Kichiro stood up and looked around. Setsuka and Mirai had gone towards the heaviest flames, possibly looking to extinguish them. Kataki stood against a wall, watching Kichiro. The Uchiha walked over to him and sighed.

"Thanks for...snapping me out earlier." Kataki chuckled.

"Couldn't have you having a complete spaz attack during a mission. Besides, the kid was traumatized by whatever crazy shit he saw."

Kichiro understood all too well. "Yeah." He looked around and twisted his mouth in a frown. "Someone with a Sharingan attacked this place…

"And the village is on fire," Kataki added. "Whatever valuable thing that person was looking for, they must've found it if they burned this place."

Kichiro activated his Sharingan again, taking in every detail of the land that his visual prowess allowed him. A strange color of chakra caught his eye, contrasting sharply against the flames around it near one of the buildings. It seemed to be rising from the earth like tiny particles.

"There," Kichiro said, pointing towards the ground. He began to weave hand seals before he slammed his hand into the ground. "Doton: Chidokaku!"

The earth where the fires blazed, collapsed and then shot upwards twenty feet into the air. Dirt and dust dropped to the ground in front of Kichiro and he did his best to manipulate the earth with his chakra enough that stray rocks didn't hurt those around him. When the earth had settled, he saw exactly where the strange colored chakra had come from.

At the bottom of the twenty foot tall extension of earth, there was the top of a tree root, glowing, at least to Kichiro, as the chakra coursed through it then floated upwards like spores.

"It smells...odd," Setsuka murmured.

"You probably shouldn't breathe whatever it's putting out in," Kichiro replied. "I don't know what kind of spores it's putting out but they're coated in chakra."

"So, it's a chakra root?" Kataki asked. Mirai nodded.

"I've seen this before…" She then looked at the civilians who had stepped back several feet away from the upheaved earth. "For your safety, I think it's best that we escort you back to Konoha." The old man looked to those around him before he finally nodded and Mirai turned to Kataki. "Take a picture. We'll need to show Lord Hokage."

Kichiro knew that there was no use. A camera would never capture the chakra spurting out from the tree the way his Sharingan had. Looking to Mirai, he started to say something but closed his mouth. Suggesting that his Sharingan was enough would lead to a message being sent that someone else with a Sharingan was needed and that would mean that his father would be called.

Kichiro felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach at the thought.

Mirai instructed them to make a circle around the civilians as they made their way back to Konoha, electing to use quick, consecutive Body Flickers until they were within walking distance of the village and safe. At the gate, the shinobi guards looked down at them and Mirai nodded to them.

"We've got important information and news for the Hokage. These civilians are from the attack near the border and this girl here is a prisoner," she said. The guards nodded and the gate slowly opened. Two shinobi came forward and Mirai handed the girl over to them. "Make sure you lock her up tight. I'm sure the Hokage will want to know everything that she knows."

The jonin were notably quiet and severe, taking the girl without a word.

Kichiro exchanged glances with both Kataki and Setsuka. "Why does everything feel so weird?" he asked. Kataki shrugged.

"Maybe the Hokage put everyone on guard since there's rogue shinobi wandering within our borders. Might not want a repeat of seven years ago," he said.

"I don't think anyone would," Setsuka muttered.

Things did feel oddly tense and Kichiro could feel the pressure of the situation throughout the village. The civilians that followed behind him looked as if they could feel it too. Kichiro was pretty positive that seeing shinobi on such high alert was doing nothing to negate the fear that the younger of the boys had gained.

Kichiro turned to the two boys and smiled lightly.

"Everything is okay. The shinobi here are just trying to make sure that everyone is safe."

"Are ninja villages usually like this?" the woman asked, holding the younger boy closer to her.

"No," Kichiro replied.

"Our village is a fair bit more fun than this, I promise you." The gust of wind that followed those words alerted Kichiro to the arrival of one of the Hokage's shadow clones. Naruto Uzumaki's trademark confident and friendly smile greeted everyone though Kichiro felt as though he could see through it. Something was happening.

"Lord Hokage," Mirai said with a quick bow. Naruto's clone raised his hand and turned to the civilians.

"I guess these are the survivors from the attack…"

"The only ones," Mirai said. Naruto's clone sighed.

"I'm sorry that we couldn't get a team out to you sooner." The old man in the group nodded his head and the woman and children looked away. Kichiro saw the clone's face shift as well. He looked over to Mirai. "Let's talk in my office."

Another one of the Hokage's clones appeared and walked toward the survivors. The younger of the boy's eyes widened in awe. His face disappeared in a yellow blur as the first clone transported everyone into the Hokage's office. At the desk, Naruto sat with his hands folded and a concerned look on his face. At his side, Kichiro saw his father leaning against the wall.

Kichiro blanched and Mirai looked down at him. Sasuke Uchiha's eyes went to Kichiro, paused briefly then stared into neutral space. If things had been tense to Kichiro on the streets, it was completely suffocating now.

The Hokage either didn't realize there was tension or chose to ignore it. He leaned forward and said, "What did you find?"

Kataki pulled his camera from his bag and cycled through the images before placing it on the Hokage's desk. Sasuke's eyes followed the camera upward as the Hokage held it. Naruto stared at it for a while before looking back up at them.

"Is this what I think it is?" he asked.

Swallowing his fear, Kichiro nodded. "It's part of a tree root that bloomed plants that were emitting chakra spores into the air."

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a knowing glance. The Hokage closed his eyes and dipped his head. "A remnant of the God Tree…"

"Yes sir," Mirai replied. "I don't know how it can still exist but there's no mistaking what this is. The rogue shinobi that attacked the village burned it down, presumably to enhance the soil in the area or to try and expose the roots. We captured one of their agents and handed her over to the guards at the gate for imprisonment and questioning."

The Hokage nodded and looked at Sasuke. The Uchiha dipped his head. "I'll handle it." He made a hand sign as if he were ready to depart and Kichiro felt the words leave his mouth before his brain could properly process their weight.

"They said that one of the people that attacked them had the Sharingan."

Sasuke froze. Naruto's eyes shot up and over towards his friend.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

Kichiro gulped. "One of the boys, he said that one of the people that attacked the village had the Sharingan. I-I don't know what they look like or if they only had one Sharingan...I just know that the boy said that they had one."

Naruto blinked at Sasuke, who's cold gaze intensified.

"Sasuke...you don't think that…?"

"No," Sasuke replied. "It may just be a coincidence."

"What is?" Mirai asked. Sasuke shook his head and quickly crossed the floor towards Kichiro. He roughly grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Come with me." Before the Uchiha boy had any chance to protest, his father whisked them both away into an alley. Kichiro stood mere feet away from his father and felt his heart pound in his chest. "When the boy told you that one of his attackers had a Sharingan, who did your mind immediately go towards?"

Kichiro blinked. "Sosei."

"Naruto told you that some of his agents have been tracking Sosei for a while now and keeping tabs on him, correct?" Kichiro nodded and Sasuke continued. "A few days ago, the three of them failed to respond to a check-in and their bodies were found, incinerated in the forest near our borders. Then, yesterday, there was an attack in the new Kirigakure that nearly a large portion of the city, the same place Sosei was last reported. Then today, an attacker with the Sharingan burns down a village harboring the roots of a God Tree..."

Kichiro understood and followed what his father was saying but he refused to believe it. Perhaps his father was projecting his own past onto Sosei's current life. If the ones who attacked the village served Yashagoro…

"There's no way it can be Sosei," Kichiro said. "Serving Yashagoro isn't something he'd ever do." Sasuke seemed to measure Kichiro a little longer and then turned away. The frigid air between them tore at Kichiro's heart and the son of Sasuke dropped his head.

"Don't let your love for Sosei blind you." Sasuke's deep voice rumbled into Kichiro's ear and registered a response in his heart and mind that his mouth didn't speak.

And don't let the guilt from your past cause you to see things in others that isn't there.

The thought of Sosei turning towards whatever goal Yashagoro did nothing but make Kichiro angry. He knew his older brother and he knew that if he had a grudge, nothing would make him let it go. Kichiro also knew that his brother was an extremist and if the ends justified the means, he would do what it took.

Perhaps, even destroying part of a city?

Kichiro didn't know for sure. But as his father disappeared, presumably to head to interrogate the rogue shinobi prisoner, something in the pit of Kichiro's stomach told him that he would know the answer soon.