Chapter 12: Spite

For the rest of the night, Shisui couldn't fall back asleep. Instead, he spent the remaining hours of the sleepless night pacing anxiously around in his room, mind twisting in all sorts of directions as he contemplated what his next move should be. Arriving at the conclusion of whether he was going to go or not was the easy part; the difficult part came with the decision of whether or not he should go alone. Should Shisui warn someone? The message didn't explicitly say to come alone, but it was clear that it was meant for his eyes only.

What if it was a trap?

Although Shisui had recently made jonin, he wasn't fooled into thinking that he was undefeatable. At thirteen years old, there were many others that had decades of battle experience on him; his level of training would pale in comparison. His advantage had always been the element of surprise at his speed, but then again, if the messenger dared to approach him, then he must have known who he was.

The mysterious messenger knew everything about him while Shisui didn't have a single clue about his abilities.

There was also the possibility that it was the abductor himself. Perhaps, this was his way of luring Shisui alone to become his next victim. The kidnapper was banking on his desperation

to get Emiko back that he would toss all rationality out the window. Maybe this was the grand plan after all; Emiko was never the target.

She was just bait.

And there was no doubt Shisui would take the bait. No matter what, even if there was only a slim chance of rescuing his sister, Shisui would take it. He would never be able to live with his own conscience knowing that he passed up the opportunity to try to save her, no matter how minimal. Risking his life was worth it; his only regret was that he wouldn't be able to take care of his family anymore.

They would be okay. Itachi would help them out in his absence.

With that renewed reassurance, Shisui continued to pace around the house while he waited for the sun to slowly rise.

When Itachi woke up, he found a note by his bedside. No signature was needed for him to recognize the unique handwriting; Itachi sat next to Shisui too many times while his cousin was drafting up mission reports to not recognize it.

Two simple sentences.

Going to find Emiko. Take care of Aimi and tou-san for me.

Itachi cursed underneath his breath. Balling up the note tightly in his fist, Itachi didn't even bother to get dressed in shinobi attire before he bolted out of the house.

The ominous tone of the note caused an unsettling feeling to churn in the pit of his stomach as the soles of Itachi's shoes slapped loudly against the dirt-packed road. Why did it sound like Shisui was expecting to die?

Itachi refused to allow that to happen. He already lost a teammate, a friend had gone missing, he couldn't lose his best friend too–

Shisui had to be okay.

Numb. Even when the first wave of hot tears splashed down his cheeks, Shisui couldn't feel a damn thing. Every single muscle in his body was locked in place. An icy sensation had crept its way through every artery, every crevice in his slowly beating heart. A guttural scream was lodged at the back of his throat but no sound came out.

The corners of his eyes were brimmed red. His chest heaved heavily as Shisui struggled to breathe despite the invisible force tightening around his chest. The pounding sensation started off slow and painless before the thumps became harder, more frequent until the throbbing feeling spread all over his head.

Even through tears, Shisui witnessed the sight with clarity. Unconsciously, his Sharingan turned on, the tomoes spinning rapidly in his eyes as it committed every single detail to memory.

Emiko. Sweet, eight year old Emiko's body laid half-buried underground. Her clothing had been torn to nothing more than rags, a disgraceful sight to his sister who was meticulous in her appearance everyday. Her beautiful, silky dark locks were crusty and matted with her own blood, tangled together until it resembled that of a bird's nest. Her fingertips were raw, skin hanging loosely, the bleeding long stopped by the dried blood clots. Nails chipped and missing. Cuts and bruises littered all over her body, her face.

Shisui visibly shook with unadulterated rage when his eyes registered the empty eye sockets. Trails of dried blood streaked down her cheeks. Her eyes, plucked and gouged out for someone else's gain. Her innocence, her future destroyed in a blink of an eye.

His hand curled up tightly into a fist, nails digging painfully enough into the palm of his hand to draw blood. Yet the pain he experienced was nothing in comparison to what his sister had gone through. The feeling of helplessness as her body felt like it was on fire from the throbbing sensation of getting her eyes ripped out of her sockets. Shisui could hear her crying in her final moments, begging for someone, anyone, to save her.

Those cries echoed hauntingly in his head.

Shisui was too late. He couldn't save her.

His legs buckled underneath him. The impact of his knees hitting the soft dirt sent a riveting jolt throughout his body. Shisui keeled over, fist pounding angrily against the ground as an outlet for his anger, his frustration, his grief, his inadequacy–

How was he worthy to be called a shinobi, a protector of the village, when he couldn't even protect his own sister?

In a fit of rage, his fingers latched onto his hitai-ite, pulling it off of his forehead and tossing it with as much force as he could muster. The metal plating bounced harmlessly against the ground, specks of dirt marring the shiny appearance.

Shisui's entire body quivered as he fixated on the growing puddle on the ground. Although he was a coward for not being able to look at his sister, Shisui feared if he took another glimpse, he would break down completely.

Emiko…

When a pair of feet came into view, Shisui suddenly jerked back. In less than a second, Shisui had already jumped to his feet, tanto blade unsheathed. Yet he hardly made for a menacing sight, not when his arms trembled and the stream of tears continued to streak down his cheeks.

A teenager stood in front of him, donning no village's hitai-ite, but his posture told Shisui that he was anything but a civilian. And if this was the man from last night, he wasn't just a regular shinobi.

A formidable foe. One that Shisui didn't even think he could take on in his normal state, much less in his grief-stricken state.

A light breeze ruffled the boy's brown locks. His hand reached outwards. The shiny plating of his Konoha hitai-ite shone back at him. Shisui simply stared at it.

"I believe this is yours." The boy moved his hand closer to him, gesturing for him to take it. Shisui quickly snatched the cloth band from his grip before retreating backwards. He didn't trust the harmless appearance.

"Were you the one who sent me the message last night?"

"Yeah," the boy responded, eyes flickering to Emiko's body next to his feet. "I figured that you would want to know."

The questions came tumbling out of Shisui's mouth all at once. "Who are you? How did you know that Emiko was here? What is your purpose of luring me out here? What else did you want to tell me?"

The boy held up both of his hands, as if surrendering to Shisui's barrage of questions.

"Slow down. You didn't even give me any time to answer."

Shisui stared at him expectantly.

"You can call me Inu. I am a tracker. I heard that children were going missing so I wanted to see if I could find any of them myself. Unfortunately, this girl isn't the only body that I uncovered during my search."

"There's more?" Shisui questioned, voice incredulous. How come the police force or the Hokage's team never uncovered anything? How did some suspicious kid who seemingly appeared out of nowhere find something that was right under their nose the entire time?

Inu nodded sadly. "Judging from the decay of the other bodies, they have been dead for much longer. Out of all of the bodies, this one was the least decayed."

When Shisui opened his mouth, Inu raised a hand to stop him. "Don't bother asking questions that I won't be able to answer. All you need to know is that we're on the same side. I know who's abducting the children, and I need you to uncover evidence of his wrongdoing while I go after the mastermind."

"The mastermind?" Shisui's eyes were wide. "There's more?"

"Have you heard of Orochimaru? One of Konoha's legendary three Sannin, student of the Third Hokage?"

Shisui nodded.

"He's the one kidnapping the Uchiha children. Apparently he's been experimenting on them to see if he can unlock the next level of Sharingan. Most of the children, like your sister, have never even awakened the Sharingan, so the process is slow going. Many of their bodies couldn't handle the intensity of the experiments, so…" Inu trailed off, deciding it was better to not explicitly say it out loud. "Orochimaru is working with Danzo. Danzo is providing him cover from the Third Hokage. The Sharingans from the failed experiments go to Danzo."

Shisui inhaled sharply. "How do you know all of this?"

"Once again, don't ask me questions that I won't be able to answer," Inu drawled. "I suspect that there is a mastermind behind Orochimaru. One that planted the idea of forcibly evolving the Sharingan. I'll take care of him. The reason I asked you out here is because I want you to handle Orochimaru and Danzo. Without incriminating evidence, Hiruzen is prone to turning a blind eye to their activities."

"How can I trust you? How do I know that everything you say is true?"

Inu shrugged. "I don't suppose that you have a choice. Do you want more of your clansmen to die?"

Shisui shook his head. "No…I already let my sister down. I can't let down everyone else too. There's still kids alive, right?"

"Presumably so," Inu said. "But their time is limited. The weaker they are, the sooner they will die, so you need to hurry. However, I would advise that you keep this knowledge to yourself. Don't involve the police force or the Hokage's forces. You never know where they have eyes and ears."

"Can I enlist the help of my cousin though? I trust him with my life. He wouldn't betray me."

Inu shrugged. "That's up to you. If anything happens, my life is not the one at stake."

The back of his hand reached to wipe away the remnants of his tears. "Thank you for the information. How do we keep in contact?"

Inu scoffed. "We don't. From this point forward, this is your battle to fight."

"Could you give me any other information? Like where the other bodies were found?" Inu reached into his weapons pouch, tossing over a plain looking scroll in his direction. Shisui easily caught it with his left hand.

"The coordinates of the other burials and the location of one of Orochimaru's hideouts. I don't know if that's where the children are being kept, but I suggest you start there."

"Thank you."

Inu turned to leave. After taking one step, he suddenly halted. He tossed a warning glance over his shoulder. "I would be careful. You've unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan…they will certainly be after your eyes."

Before Shisui could inquire any further, Inu disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The only trace of his presence that remained were the leaves that fluttered aimlessly to the ground, and the sole footprint imprinted into the soft soil.

Five minutes after Inu's departure, the Uchiha police force swarmed in on the scene. The first officer visibly blanched, immediately turning around as he witnessed the sight of her gouged eyes. The second and third Uchiha had stronger stomachs. Sorrow and pain reflected in their eyes when they made eye contact with Shisui.

Fugaku and Itachi were the last two to arrive at the scene. Fugaku clamped a reassuring hand on Shisui's shoulder as he vowed to find the culprit. Shisui's mouth instinctively opened to spill Orochimaru's identity, but Inu's warnings stopped him.

He was right.

For all he knew, there could be a traitor in the midst. Shisui could trust no one.

"Are you okay?" Itachi murmured quietly beside him as the other Uchiha members moved towards digging the rest of her body out of the dirt and transporting it into a body bag.

"Yeah," Shisui said, even if he didn't quite believe it yet. The conversation with Inu made him feel slightly better. At least he now had a purpose, an outlet to channel his anger to. "Meet me at the Naka Shrine tonight. There's something I need to tell you."

Although Itachi trusted Shisui with his life, anxiety still crept up on him as he snuck into the Naka Shrine at midnight. The look Shisui had given him earlier promised lots of answers to his doubts, but the sorrowful twinge indicated that the answers weren't any good. Still, Itachi found the courage to trudge forward through the double doors, erected the mental preparation to find out what kind of bomb his cousin was going to drop on him.

Shisui was already there, staring blankly at the base of the statue, taking in the patron deity's name and description etched on it. Itachi walked up to stand next to him, closing his eyes and bowing to pay his respects and apologizing for encroaching upon this sacred place for their conversation. It was the only place they wouldn't be interrupted.

The burning question came tumbling out of Itachi's mouth. "How did you know where to find Emiko?"

That was a question that the Uchiha police force had wanted to ask Shisui too, but out of respect for the grieving boy, they refrained from accosting him for questioning. Except, Itachi knew that after a respectable amount of time had passed, Shisui would surely have a scripted answer prepared. An answer that was nowhere close to the truth.

"An anonymous tip."

"Who?"

"I don't know. We briefly met, but I don't believe that the identity he gave is real. He told me a lot of things about the missing Uchiha children. Itachi–" Here, Shisui turned to make eye contact with him. "What I'm about to tell you needs to stay a secret between us. Even from your father."

Itachi nodded.

"Orochimaru is the one kidnapping the children. He's experimenting on them to see if he can forcibly make them activate the Sharingan. A lot of the children have died in the process of the experiment; Emiko is just one of many victims. How much has your father told you about the Sharingan?"

Itachi rattled off everything he knew. Judging from Shisui's grim expression, the breadth of his knowledge barely scraped the surface.

"The next evolution of the Sharingan is something called the Mangekyo Sharingan." Activating his Sharingan, Itachi watched as the blackness faded away to be replaced by a red coloring with black tomoes in the middle. The tomoes spun rapidly, the tips stretching and bleeding together until a three pronged shuriken shape was in its place.

"This is the Mangekyo Sharingan. It contains powers far stronger than the Sharingan and Orochimaru wants to get his hands on it."

"What can it do?"

Shisui shook his head. "I unlocked it today. I haven't had time to figure out what these eyes can do, but I went digging into some old clan archives. All I know is that everyone's eyes have a different ability. They are after our clan's power. Will you help me stop them?"

"What can I do?"

The next day, while the village was still asleep, Shisui slipped into the Uchiha police force headquarters. Depositing an anonymous tip of the locations of the other Uchiha bodies at the front desk, he slipped back into the night.

His dark cloak blended well with the darkness.

By mid-day, with the help of the Hokage's Anbu forces, twelve other bodies were uncovered. Some were scattered in various training grounds around the village; the furthest location was just beyond the outskirts of Konoha.

Some of the bodies were decayed beyond recognition. For those who still had a semblance of human structure, there was no discernible pattern between those who were missing their eyes and those who didn't.

Regardless, three children were confirmed to have their eyes missing. That was enough to warrant an uproar among the Uchiha police force, cries spreading throughout the district that someone was stealing their clan's prized dojutsu.

The clan demanded immediate action. When Fugaku exited the Hokage's office with no good news to offer the clan, that only served to reignite their anger.

By the end of the day, everyone in the village knew about the missing children, despite the Third Hokage's wish to keep the incident under wraps. Yet the angry Uchihas couldn't be contained – on their march back to the Uchiha compound from the Hokage Tower, they made sure everyone knew about it. Out of fear, the civilians kept their children tucked away in their homes. Children of shinobis became antsy and overly paranoid.

In just one afternoon, the vibrant energy had vanished like it had been sucked away by an invisible portal. Fear lingered over their heads, like stormy rain clouds up above.

Hiruzen made a public appearance to deliver generic remarks to reassure the public that the situation was under control and more shinobis would be stationed around the village to keep everyone safe. The speech didn't achieve its intended effect; the majority of the citizens still had chosen to cower away in fear.

That night, the Uchihas called for an emergency meeting. During the meeting, the worried parents hashed out the same complaints as they did earlier in the day: their children weren't safe, the Hokage wasn't doing anything, Konoha wasn't willing to use its resources to protect them–

Up at the front of the room, his father did his best to placate the hysterical clansmen. Sitting next to Shisui in the second to last row of the room, Itachi quietly watched as clan members took turns voicing their opinions.

It wasn't until Ren Uchiha's cry of, "If Konoha refuses to do anything, then we'll have to take action ourselves!" did the entire meeting spiral into a cacophonous uproar of shouts in agreement. In the entire room, Itachi could count on one hand who didn't join in the chants for the clan to take action.

Himself. Shisui. His father. And the oldest council member in the room who had seen too many things to be so easily swayed by such a trivial suggestion.

Ren turned to address Fugaku. "Chief, what is our next move?"

"Sit down," Fugaku commanded gruffly. "As of right now, we're not doing anything."

"Not even to continue investigations?" came an incredulous cry from the other side of the room.

"The Hokage has expressed his disapproval at our continued interference into this matter. Since this matter concerns our children, we have a conflict of interest in the case. The Hokage's Anbu will take over the investigation."

For the second time tonight, the room erupted into cries of how unfair the Hokage's decision was towards their clans, with some skepticism mixed in on how well the Anbu would do their jobs. The missing children hardly concerned them, so would the Anbu even put forth as much effort into investigating?

If Itachi didn't already have plans to investigate on his own, he wagered that he would have been furious like the rest of his clan too.

"We won't be doing anything," Fugaku repeated through gritted teeth. His red eyes flashed threateningly across the room. "If we interfere at this time, we'll only alert the abductor and scare them into running away. It's already bad enough that the word has gotten out to the rest of the village. But at least, we can hope that the kidnapper will be spooked into stopping their activities for a while."

"But for how long?" A rhetorical question from someone about his father's age, sitting in one of the front rows. "The kidnapping may temporarily stop, but there are some children held in captivity that are still alive. We can't sit still and do nothing."

"We have to trust the Hokage's team," came Fugaku's retort. "They have access to information and places that we do not have. At the moment, they are more well-equipped to handle this situation than we are. Why are you so quick to dismiss them?"

"But what if they turn up empty-handed like all of the other tracking teams that were sent out?"

A poignant pause and then Fugaku answered, "We'll reconsider our options then."

The implications behind that statement sent chills down Itachi's spine.