During the following weekend, the children planned their expedition into Uchiha territory. Kurenai had decided to let them do their thing and go there alone: after all, in eighteen months, they would graduate, and Sasuke and Hitomi were the brightest students of their year, to such an extent that they were compared to Hyūga Neji and Mori no Tenten, who were expected to become First Genin and First Kunoichi of their own year. Additionally, the Uchiha lands were under high surveillance from an ANBU team who stopped anyone from entering without authorisation, except for Sasuke.
Kurenai had been the one to get this authorisation from the hands of the Hokage himself. No one was overtly talking about it, but Hitomi had eavesdropped on a rushed conversation between two Nara, about how the relationship between her mother and the war chief was strained. The young Jōnin had felt insulted by the fact she had had to fight tooth and nail to obtain Sasuke's wardship, and the Third had felt insulted by how all his mistakes – like the monumental one he had made with Kakashi, by forcing him to live alone in the house where he had found his dad after his suicide – were brought up. He had only been six years old. The Copy Nin wasn't exactly an example of balance and stability.
Friday evening, the Yūhi family invited Naruto to sleep over. It had become kind of a habit – the orphanage staff was relieved to leave the little devil in their care during the weekends, and he was always calmer when he came back. A lot of civilians in the village thought Kurenai had some kind of magical power in addition to her talents for ninja arts, to be able to take care of nine children like it was no big deal, including the dreadful Demon Fox brat.
After dinner, Kurenai settled on the couch, a book on her knees. She already knew she would get a Genin team, and who her future students would be; for each of them, she had to learn a lot of things. She had decided to start with the law books specific to each clan, three heavy tomes full of judicial talk that she had already seen Hitomi sneak away, when she thought she was alone. Kurenai sometimes watched the three children sitting around her coffee table, listening distractedly as they quietly discussed their preparations.
Over the course of years, Kurenai had seen her daughter shift into a leading position amongst her peers. She would probably be one of the first from her generation to graduate to Jōnin once they became Chūnin, because she had the natural authority and the cool head necessary to take decisions even in a dire situation. Of course, the young mother had read Iruka's report concerning her children's performances during the field exercise the Academy had organised. She had had a good laugh at how everything had spun out of control, but she was very proud of the three students, and of the way they had behaved that night. She had seen, most importantly, what kind of unit chief her daughter would become, and had hurried to go show the report to Yoshino and Shikaku, not really hiding her pride and the rush of satisfaction running in her veins.
The new Nara clan generation tended to elicit that kind of reaction, she had to admit it – and so did the whole freaking clan.
Kurenai hadn't been as keen to learn that her two kids and Naruto would be placed under Hatake Kakashi's care. She liked the guy and respected him a whole lot, even going as far as considering him a friend, but… she had seen what damages the last war had done to him. He had lost his teammates and master in such quick succession that it had destroyed him, far beyond what Maito Gai's sunny friendship could mend.
"I have enough ink for several storage scrolls for each of us, but I'm gonna need to buy more very soon. And I've spent most of my winnings from the trip with Ensui-shishou… I can't wait to be a Genin."
This attracted Kurenai's attention. She knew the special ink Hitomi used for fūinjutsu was expensive, probably expensive enough to burden her daughter's finances, since she only had a weekly allowance for her gear and one or two outings with her friends. Until she was a Genin, she would have a hard time earning money, but Kurenai had decided to limit her financial means to teach her the value of money and the pleasure of spending what she had earned for herself. Of course, clothes and books were limitlessly financed: her allowance was only for her kunoichi gear and occasional little pleasures.
"You know," Sasuke started, "I know several students, even the older ones and a few Genin, who would pay for your bombs and seals. I would pay for sure."
"Me too, believe it! The armoury ones are always crazy expensive and really not practical compared to yours. When we're all Genin, we should at least pay for what it costs you to make them."
The young mother looked at her daughter as the girl thought about it, her features void of all expression as her eyes focused on a random point in front of her, meaning she had dived in her Library. Probably for some maths, if Kurenai had to bet on it.
"I… I think you're right, boys. I could try to sell some of them. But not to you, of course, nor to people from the Fellowship."
"You should at least charge us for the raw materials," Sasuke insisted. "It's not fair that you pay for all of it and spend all your earnings trying to equip nine people alone."
"What do you think, Mom?" Hitomi asked after a moment of silence.
Kurenai suppressed a laugh when she saw all three children look up to her with their big, cute eyes in the middle of a serious face. They were adorable, even Sasuke, who had started opening to her through the years. He had broken her heart the first time he had called her 'Mother'. In his mind, 'Mom' would always be Mikoto, which was perfectly fine in the Jōnin's eyes.
"I think it's a good idea, sweetheart. When you come home tomorrow after visiting the Uchiha lands, you could try to determine how much each of your seals and bombs costs to make for one unit. For your friends,I would suggest that price, with adjustments if they can't afford it when they need it – it can happen, you know it. For the others, you would add a margin that would be your benefit. If you don't start replacing the armouries, the civilians shouldn't have a problem with your little business."
"Well, if they have one, they should sell better products!"
They all started to laugh, Hitomi putting an arm around Naruto's shoulders to get him closer to her. He still felt insulted, rightly so, by the way civilians and some ninjas treated him. Kurenai had had a memorable argument with Hiruzen, trying to convince him that Naruto had to learn what was inside him for his own good. She had spoken in vain. The Third didn't listen to anyone anymore, except for his Councilmen, and everyone knew they didn't have the villagers' interests at heart anymore, only their own. Danzō's poisons had reached too deep inside them, for far too long.
"Well, that's decided then. We're gonna do this tomorrow evening, and Sunday morning if we're not done before that."
With a smile, the girl focused once again on the preparations her team needed for their trip. After all, it could be considered a mission. Her movements confident and fluid, she dipped her favourite brush in ink and started to draw her first seal with a precision that would make Ensui proud. He had drowned her with questions when she had written to him about the field exercise, and Gaara had apparently begged him to organise such exercise for him and his siblings, who would be a team once Gaara graduated from the Academy. He didn't need to be enrolled to pass the exam, not in Sunagakure. Anyone could just come in, succeed at the exam and become a Genin. Some legend-worthy shinobi, like Akasuna no Sasori, had followed that peculiar path.
"Naruto, could you make us some bentō, please? That way we won't have to leave the clan lands to eat."
The boy nodded enthusiastically and jumped to his feet. A moment later, he was in the kitchen, rummaging through the cupboards and the fridge to find everything he needed. Kurenai didn't even feel the need to go supervise him: from the three kids, he was the best cook by far, even when he had to do something other than ramen. That innocent passion had given the young mother the idea to offer him a cookbook for his last birthday. He had loved it and thanked her by jumping in her arms. So cute.
"Okay, so food and transporting the things we're gonna take from there are handled. Do you have a suggestion for weapons, Sasuke?"
"Let's take our swords. I don't think we'll encounter problems, but you're never too careful. The ANBU team I hired in the name of the clan to watch upon the land only manages the human threats. I wouldn't want to have to fight a bear without weapons."
Bears, uh? Hitomi nodded, slightly impressed. "That's right, the land has an opening on the Fire Forest… Yeah, let's take our swords. And for Naruto?"
"You can fill his pouch with kunai. He's still not so good with shuriken. We're gonna have to work with him on that before graduation."
Hitomi nodded again, deep in thought. To pass that part of the exam, a student had to prove their mastery of at least one throwing weapon. Most students stopped there and chose kunai, easier to hold and throw. Sasuke had put his priorities on shuriken. He and Hitomi could add the kunai to that list, and the girl was working on senbon too, but she wasn't sure she would have perfectly mastered them by graduation: their lightness made them very hard to throw correctly without hundreds of hours of training.
For each weapon a student showed mastery of, the Academy gave bonus points. Neither Sasuke nor Hitomi needed them, but Naruto couldn't afford to turn his nose on them. He had gotten much better in the theoretical classes, thanks to the card game the Fellowship used, but he had stumbled upon a new difficulty when Iruka had started teaching them about chakra control. Hitomi, of course, knew his problems were due to the Demon Fox's chakra inside him, an energy he couldn't incorporate in the exercises since he didn't know it was there. For most students outside the Fellowship and teachers as well, though, Naruto just sucked in that field, no matter his efforts and his slow, indisputable progress.
An hour and a half later, all three children went to bed. They had decided it was better to have a good night sleep before such an important mission – the fact it wasn't official didn't make it any less crucial in their eyes. Hitomi smiled when she heard the boys bicker for toothpaste in the bathroom. In the canon, most unhealthy aspects of their brotherly relationship had bothered her, but she couldn't find anything of the sort now, only two friends, two brothers, who loved each other without shame.
That night, Hitomi dreamed again. She saw rows upon rows of scrolls, cupboards brimming over with weapons that time had started to erode, stains of dried blood and walls scarred by fights. She woke up at dawn, her body covered in cold sweat, her breathing shallow and burning through her lungs. It was too late to go back to sleep, or she would have sought refuge in Sasuke's bed. Even when Naruto was there, she wasn't afraid of hiding in her brother's arms for comfort. One day, she would probably need to find a true solution concerning her nightmares. One day… Later. When she managed to tell Kurenai about it, perhaps.
The rest of the house slowly woke up when the scent of breakfast started to float around in the air. Naruto was the chef of their little group, but Hitomi wasn't bad herself once she got started on it. She liked cooking traditional dishes, even if some of them were still far too technical for her.
"Well, boys, we should take off for the Uchiha lands in about an hour. The ANBU who stand watch have been warned of our arrival. Sasuke, you have the Hokage's signed authorisation, don't you?"
"You already checked, nee-chan. Stop fretting and breathe, everything is gonna be okay."
Swallowing nervously, the girl nodded and obeyed. Sure, last time she had led her team had almost become a disaster, but that didn't mean it would happen again. She could trust the boys, they had her back. "Well, I'm gonna get dressed then. Your gear awaits you next to the door. You know how to strap the big scrolls to your backs, right?"
"For the Hermit's sake, Hitomi! Go change before I kick your ass until you get that we already know this! Come on!"
The girl rolled her eyes but obeyed again. Death by Uchiha wasn't in her plans for today. In the corridor, she met her mother coming the other way, already radiant. Kurenai had always been a morning person. Hitomi suspected some Jōnin hated her for it. Stories and gossips were spreading around the village and the girl had learned to listen to them. She knew so much about the ninjas surrounding her now… The story of Shikaku falling asleep halfway through his report to the Third always made her want to scream with laughter when she thought about it.
An hour later, just like she had planned, the three children were ready and walking to the gate of the Nara lands, their impatience so obvious on their features and in their gait. They greeted the clan members who were waking up and starting their day – the rest of the village was already quite busy. The Nara clan had always been one of the late risers. It didn't stop Yoshino, who they met a few hundred meters from the gate, from dragging a barely awake Shikamaru while mumbling about new pants and kids who didn't want to stop growing. Poor him.
They took around twenty minutes to reach the Uchiha lands. Once, Shikaku and Hitomi's grandfather had told her about the injustice that had pushed the clan to its old lands from before the Founders Era, in the border of what had become Konoha. Because of this new place in the village, they had been isolated from the rest of the population, and the police services, under their care, had started to crumble and lose their quality. Year after year, their resentment had settled in and grown amongst the clan, until the massacre had stopped them from staging their coup.
Sasuke was the one to unlock the iron portal that was the only access to the lands, after the ANBU cleared them to enter. His hands shook hard enough that he had to try four times before inserting the key in the lock, but neither Naruto nor Hitomi commented on his difficulties. The two children followed the last Uchiha as he took his first steps beyond the gate, silent and solemn behind him.
The first house, really a manor that towered over its surrounding, was the masters' domain, the one where Sasuke had lived his first years, the one that had heard his first words, the echo of his first steps. This time, he gave the keys to Hitomi without a word. He didn't need to talk for her to understand the ghosts living before his eyes, the feeling of emptiness and pain so tightly blended, the muffled buzzing in his ears threatening to become a groan, then a long scream of anguish. She understood, because it was her role in their Fellowship – the pillar, the guide, the empath.
She opened the door and stepped in first. The hall was relatively intact. The only witness of the time that had passed was the coating of dust on the tatami and on every object. She extended her hand and grabbed Sasuke's, as Naruto put an arm around his shoulders. All three touching each other, they contemplated the room where they were standing, trying to overlook the slight shaking agitating the youngest Uchiha.
"You can go, Hitomi," he said in an empty voice. "If you wait for me, we'll still be there in three hours."
Before complying, Hitomi exchanged a look with Naruto and only stepped away when he nodded, his eyes more serious and solemn than what the scandalmongers in the village would have deemed him capable of. People were so quick to turn a blind eye to Naruto's sweet, gentle, compassionate nature. They didn't see his loyalty or bravery, only the occasional prank he pulled on people who, by being nasty to him, practically begged for it.
Hitomi froze in the living room, her breath stuck in her throat. Everywhere her gaze went, there were traces of the massacre, up to the point she could reconstitute Itachi's steps in the room. No one had taken the time to even clean the blood off the floor. She took a few faltering steps inside and knelt on the stained tatami, her fingers brushing against the spot where Itachi's blade had gone through Mikoto's chest and stopped its course in the quilted floor. He had killed her first, probably because it was the most painful one – he had always been closer to her than he had to his father.
She looked up and suddenly she could see him, as clear as if he'd still been there, his feet soiling the tatamis, his tantō already bathed in the blood of his clanmates gripped in shaking fingers – only that would explain the pattern of droplets there. She could see the place where he had knelt behind his parents, almost heard the terrified, lonely note in his voice as he promised them to protect Sasuke. She didn't need to have been there for that. Her mind reconstructed the scene with an acuity and perfection that made her want to scream, to curl up under her bed and disappear.
The girl stayed there for a moment, her head bowed respectfully, ignoring the distant ache of the old tatamis under her knees. She had no prayer to offer them, no abstract faith to call upon for herself and for the souls of all the people who had lost their life during that cursed night – no one to beg for mercy in Itachi's name.
In this universe, they hadn't been close. He was the older brother of one of her best friends, it didn't go any deeper than that. And yet she had been able to observe him. She had seen, week after week, how anxiety took its toll on him, on his body, his face, and had found an echo in the loneliness she had read in his dark eyes. She had asked Fugaku for advice about kenjutsu, and Mikoto had helped her master complicated strokes for her calligraphy and fūinjutsu. But it was Itachi who had saved Sakura and her, who hadn't made fun of the two students overrun by their civilian opponents.
In the Previous World, when she had read this story, Hitomi had grown fond of Itachi. It felt so far away…
Slowly, her body bearing the weight of all the deaths and the blood that had once impregnated the walls and stones of this forgotten land, she stood back up. Her hands and mind got to work automatically, while her consciousness observed, cold and detached. Such a beautiful mask. Deep inside her Library, an anguished howl rang out, so deep and strong it made the whole foundations and anchors tremble. Already, she was learning to tune it down, to ignore it.
She kept going like that for more than ten minutes, opening drawer after drawer to sort through their content and decide what they would take home, before her mind yielded. She staggered, her hands hanging onto the closest chest, a strangled sob fighting its way out of her throat. She immediately muffled the sound, a fist against her lips to keep it inside. Sasuke couldn't hear this. In her state, she wasn't sure she would be able to pretend she was fine. And yet, she couldn't explain to him how she mourned his decimated clan and his brother too, the way he had been before his slow fall from grace. He didn't know. Itachi's sacrifice had been kept secret from him.
She had to make him uncover the truth before it was too late.
She would have loved nothing more than just go back to the hall and explain everything to him. But how would she have justified her knowledge of it? If the rumour broke out of her awareness of the future – if her actions hadn't modified it anyway – and her village's past, Danzō, the son of a bitch, would put his dirty hands on her. She knew she wouldn't be able to resist the torture he would put her through to steal her secrets, just like she knew such information couldn't be given to anyone without him learning about it sooner or later.
No, she couldn't do that. She had to be patient, subtle, to discreetly feed him , vague clues, month after month, year after year, until she could finally tell him the truth and pretend she had deduced it. That way, her own secret would be safe, and perhaps Sasuke could forgive his brother. If, in that process, she could make Itachi live and Danzō die… Two of her goals would be reached.
After a slight shake of her head, she put herself back together, rubbed her damp cheeks and puffy eyes, then got back to work. She was only filling a little scroll first, with trinkets Sasuke might want to take back. The interesting part, however, was in the shelves along the wall opposite to the window. The sun had faded the colours of those books, but their content was still untouched. Of course, she wouldn't find anything secret here, exposed to sight, but she still wondered what the Uchiha family had read once.
The lower shelves were filled with children books that had probably belonged to Sasuke. She took them without hesitation: if her friend didn't want them, she would suggest he gave them away to the orphanage. The higher shelves contained a complete encyclopaedia she didn't even touch – Kurenai already had one – and, the two highest, a set of all law books for Konoha's clans, and even some about foreign ones. Those she took immediately, since they were very precious resources.
She had still so many things to see and take before going home – the real home, for all three of them.