AN: New chapter.
"That can't be good."
"And it definitely involves your team."
"Our team."
"Your team."
"Our team."
"Your team."
"Why are they always my team when we know something bad is going to happen?"
"Because this way I can avoid doing all the paperwork those three cause."
Sai could only shake his head at Kakashi even as both Jonin watched the group of Uchiha drag two others from Team 7's usual training ground. The artist thought about dropping from his spot on the rooftop and confronting the group but decided against it.
"It's better not to let them know we were here." He knew all of them anyway. Itachi had been thorough when he had asked about Sasuke's well-known trouble with the rest of the Uchiha Clan. Of all the ones he knew, most of them had been at the training grounds tonight.
"They're going to be problems." Kakashi was rather calm as he spoke the facts of the situation. "But I didn't see that boy Shisui warned us about: Hideo Uchiha." A single eye met Sai's black ones. "Did you?"
"No." Sai was more than tempted to set a pack of lions on the Military Police cadets who were set to abuse a member of his team. "I don't know if that's fortunate or not. Shisui told us he's the worst of them all."
"All of this over a Kekkei Genkai…" Kakashi's voice leaked his disappointment at the entire situation. "What a mess." He shared another look with Sai. "I'll go and check on the three of them. They should be fine but I like to be sure."
Sai only nodded before Kakashi was gone in a puff of smoke. He remained standing on the rooftop alone for only a moment longer.
He was joined by a familiar Uchiha.
"Itachi."
"I have a plan to fix this."
"And how exactly do you intend to do that?"
What Itachi told him…Sai had his doubts.
But, with the way things were, the fact they were still bothering him even after the Academy, Itachi's plan may had been the only way to solve this.
If nothing else, the Uchiha Clan respected strength.
And sometimes they needed outright shows of it to learn a lesson.
Shisui Uchiha was the only one to notice Itachi when he quietly entered the occupied room, watched as Taiko and Nana Uchiha explained what had happened. From their own twisted perspective.
"T-That guy totally blindsided us! Him and his team!"
"That Uzumaki hit me when I wasn't looking!"
"He used his freaky techniques to try and freeze me! I think he gave me frostbite!"
Next to the Uchiha Clan Heir, Shisui could only shake his head at the lies being told right to Fugaku's face.
'This is pathetic.' Shisui didn't know the whole story but he could tell lies from truths, knew the two had been lying since they opened their mouths.
Sasuke wasn't violent by nature. To Shisui, he was even gentler than Itachi. It was why the group of bullies had gotten away with everything for so long, why the child trained by two prodigies of the Uchiha Clan could be bullied at all. He wasn't confrontational, didn't like fighting outside of missions, didn't even enjoy showing off his Kekkei Genkai beyond what was necessary.
'And his self-worth is in the trash.' Shisui had been in Itachi's home enough times to know how absent Sasuke was, how much he struggled to not show the effects of being all but ignored by his parents for as long as he could remember. He could count the number of times he had spotted Sasuke in a picture on one hand with plenty of fingers left over. The number of times he could remember Fugaku or Mikoto mentioning Sasuke at all for clan matters could be counted on a little less than both hands.
They had been determined to all but ignore his existence since he was 9, when he had shown them the fruits of all of his training.
When Shisui had pushed him to show the two everything he could do.
'I can't blame him for getting out of this. If Itachi hadn't picked up the slack, who knows how he would've turned out.' Shisui had heard enough of the two going on and on about all the 'crimes' Sasuke had committed, how he had attacked them unprovoked, how he had tried to kill them.
"He can't get away with this!"
"He attacked us, had his teammates attack us too!"
"He needs to be brought in!"
Shisui could name all the usual suspects when it came to Sasuke and his bullies. Nana and Taiko may be the leaders but they rarely acted alone. Nana had a gang of girls her age, Chie and Keiko two of the other main perpetrators. Yukari, Ryoka, and Romi were the other three who usually did her bidding. Taiko had Kosuke, Yo, and Minoru with him but Shisui knew about the others who usually made it their business to find new ways to ruin Sasuke's day. Rikiya, Satoshi, and, worse of all, was Hideo. Those three were unaccounted for, hadn't been part of the group that had barged into the room and demanded to see Fugaku over Sasuke's 'attack'.
He knew Rikiya and Satoshi were both at the station as part of the cadet program.
Hideo didn't involve himself with Nana and Taiko, had decided to pick on Sasuke all on his own.
'If anyone needs their asses kicked, it's these kids.' The next time Shisui had some free time, he was going to tell Sasuke exactly when it was justified to beat a sense of decency into a group of bullies. 'Even without his Sharingan, he can take them down.'
For the life of him, Shisui didn't understand why Sasuke was singled out for his unique Kekkei Genkai, how his versatile and powerful skillset was seen as something to be 'fixed', that he was 'wrong' for having it.
His talent with it was immense, put him heads and shoulders above his peers even if they were too blinded by arrogance and malice to see it.
He should be praised for it, not left all but abandoned by his own family. The only one to stand by him through it all had been Itachi.
To Shisui, Sasuke should be the pride of the Uchiha Clan, not the black sheep everyone else seemed set to make him out to be.
"This is all pointless." Itachi spoke up from the back, vocalized what both himself and Shisui thought about all of this. Although, he did take it a step further when he kept going. "If Sasuke attacked them with the intent to kill like they're telling you, then they wouldn't be standing here now. All of the cadets here are weaker than him."
His words earned an outbreak of harsh whispers, stern eyes from Fugaku's officers. Most of the men and women sitting with his father were the parents of the same children who had tormented Sasuke for years. He scoffed at their outrage, the rage directed at him for daring to call their children weak.
"If you don't believe me, then let me show you." Itachi looked to Fugaku.
If nothing else, even Fugaku could agree this situation had escalated beyond reason. He nodded, silently consented to whatever Itachi planned to use to fix this.
"With the recent filings, Sasuke will need to demonstrate his strength to earn an official classification by the Shinobi Kekkei Genkai Classification Board. The best way to earn any classification is through one method: simulated combat." Shisui had to admit, Itachi had a way of capturing the attention of the room. Not a single eye was even daring to stray off of him for a moment. "It can be one of you or all of you, decide amongst yourselves. Sasuke can and will defeat you all."
"He's right." Shisui backed Itachi's play. He was a little surprised that this was the route Itachi was taking to fix things but he couldn't deny the results it would bring. "A Classification Exam will resolve this issue. Whoever is at fault."
It was overt and lacked any and all subtlety but the time for quietly resolving this mess had passed years ago, laid at the feet of Fugaku and Mikoto.
'Now this is a bind.' Shisui was impressed with how it had all come together. 'Itachi's right, with Haruno's paperwork, the Shinobi Board has to see what Sasuke can do. It's been put off but he can't avoid it, has to do it within a year's time. And Sasuke's bullies are trapped. They either admit they lied or they stick with their fairy tale. Either way, they're arrogant enough to try and embarrass Sasuke in front of some of the village's top brass. They can't resist the chance. They'll take Itachi's challenge and think they can win. The only wild card would be Hideo…Even I can't guess what he'll do. He's just as likely to accept as he is to ignore it and fight Sasuke on his own time.'
Shisui couldn't help but glance at Itachi, couldn't read his face even with how long he'd known him, called him a friend.
'This can't be all he's after…but what else?'
Itachi's eyes were only for Fugaku and Mikoto.
"Pending the consent of his guardian of course." Those last words were sent as a direct barb towards the two older Uchiha, Itachi's once moderate stance on the two completely gone. "I'll contact her myself."
AN: Next update 2-3 weeks from now.
Review/PM if you want.
Peace.