Chapter Four

Dare to Face the Past

"Soyo! Widen your stance!"

I shifted my legs a little farther away from one another until they lined up parallel to my shoulders into the proper position and threw my shuriken at the wooden target, again. One of the sharp points sunk into the outermost ring; the first hit of three throws.

Giggles surrounded me, the other Academy students making fun of me as Nara-sensei singled me out of the crowd, again. He always seemed to be watching me as if waiting for me to make a mistake. I released another shuriken which managed to skim the edge of the target to take a chip of it into the bushes.

"You'll see better with both eyes open, Soyo!"

I muttered under my breath about Nara-sensei and his sharp eyes. So far, my teacher had caught everything that was incorrect. From how I purposefully stood in the wrong position to how I released the metal star; he caught it all. At seventy feet I could strike any target, dead center, moving or still with no trouble. I was deadly accurate with any weapon as I had been trained to be.

With twenty feet between me and a bright red bull's-eye, it was child's play. But that wasn't true for the other Academy students. Only a handful had been able to pin their shuriken to the center and that was after a couple of tries. I had congratulated Kousa when she completed today's objective with ease. She told me that her mother had been throwing sharp, pointy objects at her father long before Kousa was born so she had inherited that ability.

I had laughed at my friend's explanation as wells as at Nara-sensei's shudder and his mutterings of troublesome women. It felt weird to call Kousa my friend. I never had a friend before and when I told Kousa that she gave me a funny look before asking why no one wanted to have someone as great as me for a friend. I couldn't answer her question with words so I shrugged. She stared at me for a moment longer and then grabbed my arm. She had proceeded to drag me down the streets of Konoha babbling about how I needed a new wardrobe. I was then pushed into a beige colored stall with a bundle of clothing shoved into my arms and the command to try it on. I had learned early on to not question Kousa when she had her mind set on something, so we spent the entire afternoon putting on clothes, trying on accessories, and gossiping about who was dating who and the newest happenings in the village. Well, Kousa gossiped, I listened.

It was the best day of my life.

Reaching into my weapons pouch tied onto my left thigh, I selected a single shuriken clutched between my middle and forefinger. I drew it out and prepared another sloppy throw, but this time I would aim towards the discolored knot of wood two inches from the center. That would be my bullseye.

With a decisive thud, the shuriken struck the knot with punishing force. I smirked in satisfaction and proceeded to try for the leaf that had landed on top of the round target, but before I could let loose the star from my fingertips my wrist was caught in a gloved grip. I looked up in the penetrating eyes of my sensei; their black depths boring into my own with an intensity that sent the hairs on the back of my neck shooting up. His fingers carefully repositioned my wrist so that my shuriken would fly from my hand, correctly. His other hand he used to slap me upside the head. I exclaimed more in shock rather than the pain and Nara-sensei glared at me.

"I thought you said that your eyes were fine, Soyo?"

I nodded, still shocked from the familiarity of the gesture.

"Good," he grunted. He extended his arm out that he used to knock me on the head and pointed at the target. "You see that red dot in the middle?" Again, I nodded. "Aim for that, not the surrounding foliage."

It was the way he said it that put me on guard. Ever since that fake test he gave me three weeks ago he hadn't stopped, well…testing me. So far, I was pretty sure that I hadn't given anything away. Training was kept to a minimum. I went through a daily regimen of basic taijutsu and followed the pattern of my ninjutsu; no chakra, but I was sure that Nara-sensei knew I was hiding something. I even went out of my way to put up the show of normality for the ANBU that strayed outside my apartment. Every night, without fail, they would post a watch at my window, reporting back to Tsunade what I ate for breakfast and where I put my silverware. I was certain that I had pinned down the timing of when the guard changed, but I didn't know if it were the same shinobi that hid behind painted masks for I had not seen the dog ANBU since I moved in.

"Wake up, Soyo! This isn't nap-time."

Startled out of my musings, I snapped my wrist out with the intimately familiar weight of the shuriken. With a deafening whistle in the sudden silence, the star soared through the air in a straight path striking the center with a solid thump. The vibrations of the harsh impact travelled up the tree the target was attached to and shook loose green leaves that lazily drifted to the ground as if without a care.

I looked over from the shivering branches to the smirking face of my sensei. He had crossed his arms over his chest some time during my journey through my thoughts; the man looked positively smug.

"Nice shot, Soyo," he drawled. He gave me a pat on the head where he hit me earlier before turning around to help another struggling student. He called over his shoulder. "Do that three more times and you're done for the day."

Smoldering under my calm façade, I cursed under my breath at my carelessness. Everything Nara-sensei had done today had been working towards me losing my patience and thoughts. I should have seen that! It seemed that no matter how much I planned and covered my nearly non-existent tracks, the black-haired man was always ahead of me. Countering all my attempts to hide away, asking questions that put me off guard; I wasn't safe in the comforting shadows of obscurity around him. But I was addicted to his teachings. I fell into the temptation of being a kid. Falling into the shrouded abyss of ignorance; I wasn't sure I wanted to climb out.

There was one thing, however, that I didn't miss in my childhood; fools and idiots. I ignored the obnoxious snickering next to me and continued to aim for that leaf that I had my eye on earlier. Finally, though, I couldn't take it anymore and turned to glare at the boy who had bestowed the privilege onto himself to annoy the hell out of me.

"What is so funny," I asked.

Jin, the ice-haired boy, chuckled for a moment longer. "You, of course," he responded, "and your sad attempts to succeed in anything you do."

The words shouldn't have hurt me, but I couldn't help but feel a twinge of pain. I turned that pain into anger.

"I see you haven't made much progress either," I mocked and gestured to his own target, not as bare as my own, but the closest shuriken to the center was in the first ring.

He snorted. "Hmph," and raised his nose at me. "At least I can hit my target. I can't say the same for you, though."

"I always hit my intended target."

Jin smirked. "Care to make a bet on that?"

Never was I the one to say no to a challenge. I nodded.

"Perfect," he sneered. "We'll settle this with one shot. The one who gets the closest to the center wins."

This was a great chance to put this conceited, arrogant boy into his place. "What will happen when you lose, Jin?"

"Well, when you lose, Soyo, you'll have to…" he broke off to think. "The loser has to…spend the night in the haunted mansion," he said with a cruel sneer stretched across his face.

I think I was supposed to be scared, but I had no idea what he was talking about. Besides, haunted mansion? It sounded stupid not…scary.

Jin must have caught my confused expression. "Oh, right. You're the foreign orphan the Hokage took pity on. Of course you wouldn't know anything."

I know how to throw a punch, I growled mentally. It wouldn't take much force to break his nose.

"But surely you must have at least heard about the Uchihas?"

Everything around me chilled, trapped in an instance of time. The wind ceased its game of blowing through the trees. The birds left off their happy tune. My blood ran cold. My breathing stopped. I froze.

However, the sudden stillness didn't affect Jin's mouth.

"They say that when the older Uchiha brother murdered his family, the spirits of the dead stayed behind. That's why the younger brother, the only one spared, went mad and began a killing spree of his own after he betrayed the village. But since the spirits were not put to rest, they haunt the Uchiha compound to this very day, waiting for someone of their bloodline to sink their ghostly claws into."

My dad's childhood, his past – my history – was here. Everything that I've always wanted to know was here. Grandmother, grandfather, cousins, great aunts, great uncles, all the family that I've never known and will never meet were all here. I knew that they must have been here, but I never made a connection. Never received a clue.

And now I had it. All I had to do to get it was to lose this bet. It seemed things were falling into place, laying down a path for me to lead me towards my destiny, my goal: my uncle's death.

"Are you done trying to scare me, Jin?"

He frowned, but shrugged off my accusation. "So, ready to lose?"

Yes. "Show me what you got."

Jin threw first. He made his mark on the uppermost tip of the bullseye. Not bad. With a little more practice he wouldn't be a terrible shot. He turned to me with a smirk. I returned one of my own. I let my shuriken fly and hit my mark dead in the center.

"Ha! Tough luck, Soyo. Looks like you're sleeping with ghosts tonight."

"Looks like it," I agreed.

I looked at my metal star pinning that annoying leaf to the top of the painted wood, right in the middle of it. I told him that I always hit my intended target.

"You have to bring something back that proves you were at the mansion. If you don't, you'll never be one of us!"

"What do you mean?"

Jin sighed in aggravation. "I mean that's the initiation test for wannabe genins. If you're not brave enough to spend the night in the Uchiha compound then you'll never be a ninja. The ones who've done it have always become genins. Every. Single. Time."

"Have you done it?"

"O-of course," he stuttered and then began to pick up his array of shuriken from the target. If he wasn't so arrogant I think I would have kissed him for his childish dare. He quickly left the practice field outside of the Academy leaving me with a handful of students who were still trying to hit the bullseye.

I was spending the night in the Uchiha mansion, a place of bloodshed and sorrow. I couldn't wait. The only problem was dodging my guards. I wanted to do this alone, and alone did not include three ANBU who would certainly report my activities back to the Hokage. She didn't need to know everything about what I did, and this was something that was intimately private. Tonight I would meet my family for the first time, so what was I doing here?

Looking around, I spotted Nara-sensei helping a struggling student with shuriken practice. My teacher was kind, but firm, intelligent, but lazy, and the best thing of all, his attention was off of me. Quickly, I slipped my hand into the pouch at my side, sliding three shuriken into the spaces between my fingers. I took a half step forward and flung my arm out all in one fluid movement. The shuriken whistled through the air for a split second before biting deeply into the bullseye of the target, adding to the single star already there; all three clustered around their brother to form a flower with four petals.

"I've finished, Nara-sensei," I called out before dashing away towards my apartment. I didn't wait for his dismissal because I needed to plan out a certain little distraction for my guard dogs tonight.


It was quiet except for the soft clanking of dishes and the rasping of cloth scrubbing the plates clean. Dinner had been a simple ordeal if not a peaceful one, but I missed the crackling of an open flame and the warm presence of my father. I didn't eat much, I never did. Tonight, however, my stomach was too unsettled from excitement. Before I placed the leftovers into the fridge I thought to offer my meal to the ANBU posted around the apartment building. Then again, it would be rude to expose them after they had been trying so hard to keep me from knowing I had a pack of guard dogs following me for most of the day.

So I decided to keep this little game of ours going for the sake of my own amusement. Because I was sure that watching a potential suspect be…normal was boring. Well, there would be a break in the routine I had established, at least for me. And it would start…now!

I picked up my stack of dried dishes, and, like always, opened up the cabinet to place them inside. However, it seemed that I had put too much weight on the feeble shelf. The weak wood neatly snapped in half and all the plates, bowls and pans came pouring out of the cabinet and onto me as well as the floor. It was an accident, of course. I mean it could have happened to anyone.

The noise the china avalanche made was deafening as I dropped to the floor, conveniently hidden behind the counter. Part One of my distraction was complete. Time to set in motion Part Two.

My fingers instantly fell into the long practiced pattern of the shadow clone jutsu that had been one of the first jutsus father had taught me. Immediately following was a lesson in chakra control. He told me that withdrawing only the necessary amount would allow me to have more chakra saved for another attack. And that extra bout of offense could save my life. "Only idiots and fools pushed their body's limit in order to make a spectacle of themselves," he said. Right after that, he got that far away look in his eye that I had come to associate with him remembering the past. I only nodded and tried again. I didn't ask, for when he was reliving his memories it was either painful or peaceful for him. If it was bad, he would be in a mood the rest of the day, but if it was a recollection of better days he would get this smile on his face. A nearly invisible one, but it was a grin nonetheless and I didn't have the heart to interrupt one of the few moments where my father would be at peace.

I missed him. I missed him so much.

But now was not the time for memories. It was time to act. I felt the warm brush of my chakra snap against my skin and immediately Amaya Uchiha kneeled before me with an identical smirk. I couldn't go very far without losing my connection with the clone, but all I needed to do was to send my copy to bed and no one would know.

The sound of the last dish falling masked the pop of my transportation jutsu. I flicked the hood of my jacket over my head so that it covered my hair and strolled down the streets of Konoha as if I hadn't a care in the world. No one would notice me missing for I was still in the kitchen of my run-down apartment picking up the mess of cookware. I never knew sneaking out could be so much fun.

With a small grin on my face, I walked silently towards the abandoned Uchiha compound which I had scouted out earlier in the day under the guise of going shopping. I passed closed up shops and little houses with dim lights glowing peacefully from covered windows. I heard laughter come from one followed by a chorus of giggling children; jealously flared up inside of me for a moment before it was blown away by a chilly breeze. I huddled deeper inside of my thin jacket. There was no reason to be jealous. I had a good life with my dad. It may not have been perfect, but I was happy. I was happy with him.

But now he was gone. Could I be happy again?

I sighed. I didn't know. I didn't know a life without him. I was walking blind on an obscured path through an unknown forest without a clue as to which way I should go. So I stopped.

I stood in the middle of the street, broken gates barring my passage with the Uchiha crest stamped proudly in the center.