Iruka pondered the idea of rejecting the offer, but ultimately decided that in this particular instance he didn't care too much about what protocol or the code of ethics for teachers said. If it meant that he would get to see his students, he was willing to take that risk. With this thought his resolve hardened even faster when he realized that at least some of them would be on death's door. "You've got yourself a deal." He paused then said "But only after I get to see them." The blonde's cheerful demeanor waned for a brief moment, but he quickly resumed his smiling facade.

"Sure, check in this weekend. I should have it all sorted out by then.


Sasuke usually didn't make a habit of arriving at places before he needed to. His father has simultaneously stressed the importance of punctuality, and of taking as long as possible. The former because it was beneath those of his class, and the latter as it forced people to be on their toes. Nonetheless he arrived at the ruined district that was his home in nearly record time. He knew he only had about an hour before his blonde haired friend-slash-advisor came back and began Sasuke on what he assumed would be near mountains of forms and paperwork that he would now be responsible for as acting head of the clan.


Naruto Arrived at the compound not thirty minutes after speaking with Iruka. After a quick word with the hospital staff the Hokage arrived for similar reasons. The mischievous blonde used the opportunity to get the aged leader's permission to requisition the necessary documents for visitation privileges.

On his way to the compound he picked up some ramen to go from Ichiraku's. He didn't particularly care about food so long as it was nourishing and tasted even remotely good. The quaint little ramen bar was only frequented by the blonde because he knew how much Sasuke disliked their food. Gleaning this little fact made it Naruto's go-to place for food on the go ever since. As both the raven-haired boy's confidant and friend he felt it was both his privilege and duty to do anything and everything he could to irritate, enrage, confuse, befuddle, stupefy, or otherwise get under the skin of the Uchiha heir.

He strolled into the home at a gait, a quick sniff of the air told him the general location of the young lad he was looking for. Quieting his steps as he ascended the stairs he noticed the old bedroom of the elder main family sibling. The door ajar and slight candle light gleamed through the slit between door and frame. The fact that the lights weren't being used meant that Sasuke was either unsuccessful at restarting the main breaker, or never even bothered to try. Naruto suspected the latter on account of neither of them ever having to fix it before.

"I brought food." The blonde tried to no avail to get a response, Naruto cracked the door open to see his brother in all but blood reading on the dirty tatami mats, outright furious and with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"He killed them... He killed the clan, he threatened them and then killed them." Naruto blinked with no comment this sounded like nothing more than the ravings of a madman.

"Sasuke I don't understand what you are-" he was stopped by Sasuke handing him a scroll. He then began to read,

Mission assignment 00178. By order of the Bloodlord.

You, operative Sigma Mu 1, Uchiha Itachi are to do as follows.

I. Utilizing the information in the Uchiha scrolls acquire the Mangekyo Sharingan.
II. After acquiring the Mangekyo, demonstrate its powers to the various Uchiha clan branch leaders.
III. Attempt to persuade them to either the Mangekyo themselves or to defect to the aid of the Bloodlord. Should they choose the latter you are to secretly escort them up to the Bloodlands. Should they choose to acquire the Mangekyo Sharingan, you are to assassinate them and steal their bodies away for transport.

After this join up with operative Beta Mu zero, Hyuuga Hizashi, help him carry out his objectives. Do not destroy this message it is to be left to serve as a warning message for anyone who survives the upcoming assault.

-Praise be to him who hath shown us direction.

At the end of the message was a seal stamped in blood it appeared to be a very stylized character for the word blood.

Naruto's veins boiled his sight faded to red. His thoughts grew dull, and his senses only thought was of the gruesome ways he would tear the man who he felt was like an elder brother to him in twain. Sasuke could actually feel the pulsation of Naruto's chakra. Naruto's eyes appeared to shift from their normal cerulean to a deep violet. The whisker marks on his face grew deep, his breathing ragged, and his hair standing on end. Then the feeling of struck home, killer intent unlike anything he had ever dreamed of washed over him, and his friend visibly began to leak a stream of red.

"Naruto!" Sasuke snapped, he had seen his friend like this once before, and it had taken both his father and brother over ten minutes to subdue him. It had only ended when Sasuke spoke to him. Sasuke's voice rang in his ears for what seemed to Naruto to be hours. After a minute Naruto had begun to regain control of his senses. As the chatter in his mind faded he noticed something he hadn't earlier. It was a faint mewling sound much like an injured cub, and it was coming from inside the house.

Without a word Naruto bolted for Fugaku's study. When he finally entered he tried to locate the source of the sound. Closing his eyes to focus he found he could no longer hear it, but now that he was focusing on his senses other than sight, he smelled something. A pungent odor that smelled very distinctly in contrast to the blood and death that hung in the air all over the compound. It was the smell of bleach, or maybe ammonia, but certainly some sort of cleaning agent. Following the smell through the room he noticed it was stronger right in front of the shelves of the bookcase. Naruto quickly called Sasuke over and had him help in removing the books.

Halfway through taking out the books Naruto noticed a mark he had grown very familiar with under the tutelage of the head of the family.

"Go grab the clan head's seal." Sasuke normally didn't take well to orders from those who were not his explicit superiors, but the blonde had always been an exception. Though Sasuke would scoff at the thought, he probably trusted his only friend with his life.


Two minutes later Sasuke returned, seal in hand. Naruto quickly snatched the little ring of porcelain from his friend's hand and fitted it to the metal plate in the bookshelf that had an embossing the exact reverse of the ring he now held. Several seconds went by with nothing happening. Puzzled, the blonde boy retracted the ring from the metal plate and stared at it incredulously. "Well that doesn't make any sense, this should have done SOMETHING. How are we supposed to figure out what is behind this bookcase then?" After a moment he noticed the Uchiha's eyes were glossed over, as if stuck in thought. The black haired boy finally snapped back to lucidity and with motion that mimicked the blonde he snatched the ring from his grasp. Putting the ring onto his index finger Sasuke flashed through the hand signs of the only techniques his father ever directly taught him.

"Grand Fireball!" Sasuke shouted and then let out a stream of fire from his mouth onto the bookcase. Naruto went wide-eyed trying to discern what good burning down his house would do. As he was about to ask the marginally older boy what he was thinking he noticed two things that left him speechless. The first was that despite being pounded with a scorching hot live flame the wooden bookcase was unharmed. The second was that said bookcase was glowing with thousands of florescent blue runes. As soon as the fireball died down Sasuke touched the signet ring to the metal plate implanted in the rune covered bookcase. As soon as the ring met metal the young Uchiha gasped in pain. Naruto immediately tried to pry his friend from the wall, when that didn't work he tried to remove the ring. This also ended in failure. Somehow the vitreous clay ring had fused itself to the metal plate, with Sasuke still wearing it. As he struggled to pull his friend free he felt his hands burn against Sasuke's bare flesh, looking at where his hands touched the other boy he noticed that Sasuke appeared to be burning alive, his skin marred all over, yet no flame was visible. Naruto was struck dumb trying to think of how to save his sizzling friend when he heard a voice he was all too familiar with speak.

"State your name and lineage, or burn to death." The monotone of Fugaku's voice emanated from the wall. At the end of the dead clan leader's request Sasuke stopped screaming and opened his eyes. To Naruto's surprise they were blood red, with two small dots spinning rapidly around the iris. In a calm and soft voice the pale red-eyed boy spoke.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke, son of the main house." At this the azure glow of the runes turned a deep red, then pitch black, then the runes appeared to crawl into the wall behind the bookcase.

The bookcase wall sank into the ground, as soon as the top of it sunk into the ground Sasuke collapsed. Naruto dove to catch the boy before he hit the ground. After spending a full minute of checking over the body of the Uchiha Heir he noticed the flesh he watched burn before his eyes was scabbed over slightly, as if several weeks worth of healing had just taken place. Sasuke quickly regained consciousness and stared at Naruto. Sasuke noticed something out of place, Naruto was staring at him, and he was covered in a pale blue haze that darkened and shifted violently around his stomach. Before the unaware Sharingan user could think of what to say, the blonde spoke.

"Sasuke, you have got to see this!" The blonde was ecstatic and appeared was grinning while pointing at the Uchiha's face. With a small glance around the room he found a mirror sitting on the northern wall pointing to it he directed the blonde's attention to the mirror. Naruto got up to retrieve the mirror, it took him a second of wiggling before he realized he would need to force it off. rather than disturb one of the few places left mostly intact after the invasion he decided it was prudent to bring the fallen boy to the mirror, rather than the other way around. Hopping back over to his fallen friend Naruto lifted him up in a fireman's carry and brought him to the mirror. Sasuke looked at his reflection and saw two blood-red eyes staring back at him.

"The Sharingan..." Naruto reached over to the chair behind the desk and pulled it over in front of the mirror, then sat Sasuke down so he could look at it. While Sasuke soot enraptured by his own mysterious bloodline limit Naruto took the opportunity to take a peek at where the bookcase once stood. There was now a perfectly stark white antechamber with a raised platform in the middle of it. Poking out the top of the platform appeared to be a wooden ladder. Going over to examine the ladder and where it led Naruto spent a good twenty seconds trying to figure out where it could lead. Realizing that he had an intelligent young man sitting nearby he figured he would invoke some old commoner's wisdom involving two heads.

"Sasuke, I know you really really want to make sure your makeup looks pretty but I think it can wait until we check out what is down there." At his last word the blonde pointed to the ladder leading down into an unknown area of the main house. Sasuke took one last peek at his visage, then stood up and managed to walk unassisted, though wobbly, to where the blonde was pointing.