I realise there might be some confusion. When I said Neji them were a year younger I meant the grade below us. But anyway. I've realised something. My burgoing taijutsu style isn't just taijutsu. It's actually nintaijutsu. In other words, not dissimilar to that used by the 3rd and 4th Raikages. Just I use fire and mine is clearly more awesome. Or so I think atleast. A year has flown by and it's now our 3rd year at the academy. We're turning 8. I'd finally realised just how I'm going to save a few Uchiha. You see, while those of civilian stock generally ignore my brother and I, the clan kids are more open to interaction. Particularly if it's competitive in nature. I'm head and shoulders above my classmates. That makes me a " prodigy " in the eyes of the clan kids. You probably wondering why I haven't graduated yet. The answer is simple. Time. The academy does actually serve a purpose other than training us. It's where we familiarise ourselves with our future comrades. If I want to be Hokage one day I can't be seen as too aloof. The way people see Itachi for example. But I digress. I'm rambling. I started an after school... tournament for lack of a better word. The clan kids generally have a better physical condition than those who aren't from clans so they generally make up the top tiers in each class. It was easy then to play on the egos of the Hyuuga, Uchiha and Inuzuka clan kids to get them to join. You see in our spars in the Academy there was a certain structure to the fights. They also generally had the stronger kids hold back a bit when fighting. There was none of that here. We competed solely for bragging rights. With everyone who was part of the group having to acknowledge the best. I know what you're thinking. How's that any different from the whole rookie of the year title? There's the answer right there. Of the Year. We never fight outside of our year groups. The point of the tournament is to prove who is undisputedly the strongest in the entire Academy. This whole thing might seem massively convoluted, but there's a method to my madness. The Hyuuga's Byakugan and the strong sense of smell of the Inuzuka. You probably wondering why that is relevant. It's simple. Where we " competed " wasn't far from the Uchiha compound. I had through trial and error found where the Uchiha Police patrol and where Anbu patrol. How you ask? Simple. I had the same sensory ability as Karin. If she could do it then so could I. Atleast that's what I reasoned. Fortunately I couldn't heal people by letting them bite me. I tested it by letting a clone bite me. Not a fun experience. But anyway. The area we trained in was in a gap in the patrol routes. The reason no enemies knew about it or used it was the proximity to the Uchiha. Now we generally all went home when the sun started to set. The Uchiha breaking away from the group 1st. They story we all spun was that we were playing ninja. Convincing the clan kids to use that excuse was an uphill battle. But I was able to play off their fears of the adults stopping us. That and asking if they're scared. So kiddy pride and peer pressure worked wonders. With the Hyuuga's and Inuzuka part of our group nobody could sneak up on us. Whenever people approached we quickly started " playing ". It had the added benefit of improving reaction times. This is the year when all the clan heirs joined the academy. We only invited Sasuke because he was the only 1 of them who was not only willing to join, but could keep his mouth shut. I doubt he fooled Itachi though but seeing as I never sensed him he was probably glad Sasuke had " friends ". The massacre by my estimation is still months away though. Time enough to work out the kinks in my plan. Today, at the Academy we learnt something that will be useful that night. How to use our chakra to signal for help. I've always found it strange that nobody heard anything the night of the massacre. Now I know some of why that is. The Uchiha compound is pretty isolated. Nowhere near any apartments or the like. Secondly the ANBU patrols were probably redeployed somewhere else for the night. Still. There was probably a large scale genjutsu employed. No matter. I plan on using a signal flare to bring extra attention to the area. I've noted that the Hyuuga and Inuzuka send members to collect their kids halfway, so on the night there will be adult shinobi who can reach us fast. I know that as soon as the Uchiha kids in our group find out something's wrong in their compound they'll all rush to see what's wrong. I need to make sure none of them die. They've kinda grown on me.
Time has moved by fast. I've started doing the 1st stage of the other 3 elements. It's been slow going. I'm confident though that by the year end I'll have completed the 1st stage for all 3. Sigh. I've been struggling to sleep lately. It's all coming to a head and I'm starting to second guess myself. I can't stop now though. I've come this far. At the very least I've committed myself to saving the Uchiha in our group but I don't hold out any hope of saving the rest.
Deep breath. It's time. Our session for the day is over and we're heading back when suddenly it happens. The Inuzuka in the group suddenly freeze. " Hey guys, what's wrong? Why did you stop? " asks Naruto. They seem to be trembling. The eldest of them, Kichirou says " Blood. The smell of blood is thick in the air. ". I look around then ask 1 of the Hyuuga " Daisuke, look with your Byakugan. What do you see? " He activates his kekkei genkai and looks around. He frowns and looks in what I know is the direction of the Uchiha compound. He gasps. " There are bodies lying around the compound. ". All of us gasp. I see the Uchiha with us tensing. Before they move though I say " those of you that know how,
use your chakra to emit the distress signal. Those of you that have flares, send it up. " There's a flurry of activity. I remove my flare and so does 1 of the Uchiha. We send it up and 2 loud bangs and flashes of light flare up across the sky. I can feel the Hyuuga and Inuzuka who are awaiting their clansmen head in our direction rapidly as we head towards the compound. I can also feel trickles of shinobi headed our way. In the compound I feel the Uchiha there being snuffed out but there's still a few flickering chakras. Then we arrive. It's eerie. We're all huddled near each other frozen in shock seeing the bleeding corpses. Not long after, the adult Hyuuga and Inuzuka arrive. They just like us are speechless. They react quickly though. They start flaring their chakra. 1 Of the Hyuuga says " All of you children leave immediately. Go to the hospital and tell them to send all available medical shinobi immediately. Tell them this is a request by Jounin Akito Hyuuga. Go! " The Uchiha look mutinous but realised we were all out of our depth. We raced to the hospital but all of us, including me were shaken by what we had seen. When we arrived, 1 of the Hyuuga took the lead and explained everything. After that there was a flurry of activity. We were lead to a sitting room and time sorta blurred. I think I zoned out because the next thing that happened, the door opened and Tsume Inuzuka and Hiashi Hyuuga entered along with the Hokage. All of us looked up. Sasuke got up fast. " Lord Hokage, my clan...what's going on!? Where's my parents? "I wondered what he was going to say. "Sasuke, and indeed the other young Uchiha here I'm sorry to say that most of your clan have been killed. Including your parents Sasuke. Fortunately thanks to the actions of you and the other children and your quick thinking, about a dozen other Uchiha are alive as well. You'll have to enquire about their identities with the Chief Medical Shinobi. Now, I'll need to ask you children exactly what happened. "I was looking at my feet. In my head I was thinking what a bastard the Hokage was. As if he didn't know. If he wasn't so weak we wouldn't be in this position right now. I let 1 of the Hyuuga explain. I was looking around. Tsume and Hiashi looked tense. Likely realising how tonight could have gone wrong for us. During a lull in the conversation I asked " Lord Hokage who would do this? ". Everyone suddenly focused on the Hokage. He sighed and looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. " It was Itachi Uchiha. He's been branded an S rank missing ninja. "
The next few days were a blur. By unanimous agreement our " tournament " was cancelled. I learnt that of the dozen other Uchiha that survived 4 were mothers with a baby each and 4 other young pre Academy children. Remarkably this meant that all pre Genin Uchiha survived. I was both sad and immensely relieved. Sad that we couldn't save any of the Genin but relieved that all the actuall children survived. Now Itachi wouldn't be carrying that on his shoulders. There's been a remarkable shift in the attitudes of the villagers to the Uchiha. Even towards me and Naruto. Now they only looked at us like they couldn't understand us. The Uchiha all left their compound and relocated to a mostly empty apartment building. Yes you guessed it. We had new neighbours. I didnt plan for this. This is good and bad. Good in that our block is watched and guarded by Anbu because of Naruto and I but also bad because now Danzo's eye is firmly on us. Yay.