It was the middle of the night when Sumika was awakened.
The spirits that surrounded her were restless just the same as two ANBU squads that slipped into her room.
Shisui, her beautiful and kind brother, was laid at the foot of her bed with his eyeball missing. The spirits were hissing of Danzo and dragging his soul before Emma-ō.
Sumika paid no mind to that, channeling Shodai-sama just a bit to heal the maimed eye. She follows alongside his words slowly as she pulls the poisonous bugs from his chakra stream, cursing the Aburame under the elder's command to hell. Another spirit gets pulled from the Pure Lands, an Aburame with a long extinct hive that was sent through Shisui's body to heal the damage of the poison.
She listens as they report to her of Shisui planning to use his Mangekyō against the clan. Listens to the reports of Danzo betraying and attacking her brother. Listens to their reports of bloodline theft and finally learns why Kagami-ji refused to visit his old teammate.
Itachi clings to him tightly, only moving when she taps out a familiar rhythm. He returns just as quickly, an empty basin in one hand and another filled with water and a cloth.
Shisui groans weakly under her hands, but he blinks his one eye open, blurry with tears to see his sister's blank face above his own. And yet—he could also see the sheer rage in her eyes as she listened to Itachi absent and unbeknownst to him, the spirits of the dead who were reporting to her of Danzo's actions.
(He would die that night—by her hand— may the gods bear witness.)
"Aniki," she muttered, thumb swiping across his cheek. "Foolish boy."
He gave her a pained smile. It took a little effort to get him comfortable, lying between her legs as she settled against the wall. With slightly shaking hands, she reaches for the cloth, brushing it over his curls softly. Her chakra churned in agitation and anger at the blood she washed away.
She had not done this for years as washing another's hair was a sign of intimacy in the eyes of the Uchiha; something only lovers did. But she loved no one greater than her brother, the other half to her soul. It was rare that family members took part in such intimacy, but Shisui had done it for her when she left the Hunter Corps, face pale and gaunt and bloody as it all pressed down on her at once. She would do it for him now, as the scene was almost replicated in its entirety.
Rinse and repeat, she moved as she cleaned the dirt and blood away. The ANBU squads stood around them, quiet and on guard. It was with gentle movements that she took a brush to Shisui's hair. She knew Izuna-sama and Madara-sama rested in the room with them. Their eyes were closed, humming a song that their Mother sang to them whenever she did this for them.
Subconsciously, she began to hum alongside them, smiling absently as tension seeped further away from Shisui.
She could sense the ANBU squads watching them. She could sense Itachi moving to sit in front of Shisui, removing his mask. She didn't have to look to see Shisui's smile as he too began to brush Itachi's hair.
Her voice is soft, yet strong as she speaks: "Send for Shikaku-sensei and Inoichi-dono. Send word to Fugaku-sama and Lord Third. It is time to put an end to this foolishness once and for all."
The squads tensed for but a moment. They took orders from none but their leader and yet— her tone warned against argument. The world chilled around them, almost freezing the longer they lingered. "Get Clan Leader and the Hokage last."
And finally, they move.
Itachi goes to his Father. Genma (Raion) goes to Shikaku and Inoichi, bringing Chōza along for the simple fact that his sensei was with them. Yugao (Tori) goes to the Hokage.
Sumika picks her brother up with little effort, walking them to the chanoma. She gestures for Raido (Ushi) to start some tea.
(In the regress of her mind, she plots. Not only murder because she plans to paint the world red in her fury, but a brilliant way to fix the chasm between her clan and village.)
The others turned to take guard around the room. Iwashi (Yagi) appeared at her side, carefully taking hold of her brother's belongings as she removed them. One of Shisui's crows appeared; she recognized it as one that functioned as a storage bird. The summon chirps before heaving up a storage scroll. A flare of chakra from Shisui opens it to reveal clothing.
Sumika hummed as she and Iwashi changed him into clean clothes.
"He will be on bed rest for a long while," Shodai-sama stated from beside her. "The effects of the poison ate at his chakra coils. I will say six months to a year before he is healed to do even a henge."
Sumika says nothing as her chakra twists once more with fury. It took most of her concentration to keep her own Mangekyō from activating. Her brother groaned, casting drowsy eyes upon her. "Sleep, nii-san. All will be well in the morn."
That she swears.
"Watch over him," she orders to the room at large, the living and dead. She walks back into her room, Kagami-ji at her heels. It's quiet as she changes into armor. She slips between the threshold of life and death, and the elder Uchiha steps forward to braid her hair down, decorating it with senbons.
"He will die," the spirit states. A mask settled onto her face; voice filled with promise as she answered: "Tonight."
She steps back into the living room, and the ANBU know better than to react at the sight of Chiitah of the Oinin Butai appearing once more for service. The spirits around her, who knew how negatively the service affected her, grimaced. It was not easy being the best assassin in the hunter corps with the ability to see the dead.
Chakra signatures make their way to the house, and Chiitah settles into a chair as if it were her throne. Unseen to all, but herself, the spirits flank her, her swords and shields as she so commands it.
Her sensei enters first, dark eyes finding her immediately. He knows without her saying anything… without even looking at Shisui that the night will end in death and the sky will be painted red. And when he looks at Shisui, looks at the two squads that surround the room, he knows that there will be no reasoning with her or any of the others. He knows that he could only mitigate the outcome.
Shisui's sensei enters right behind him, back stiffening as he catches sight of his charge. More pale than ever, pained even in his rest. Inoichi's chakra was much like his student, crashing waves charged with lightning. He doesn't look at her, but Chiitah knows that she has his support either way. He takes his spot beside him, listening carefully as Iwashi gives him a whispered report of his injuries.
Chōza follows behind, grim as he looks around the room. They were not his students… they were not Genma, Gai, or Ebisu, but he helped raise the twins just the same when his teammates were saddled with them. Trauma sounded in the two quite differently, as Shisui shut down from the world and as Sumika raged against it. He remembered clearly how she had been dragged (literally dragged) by Fugaku into his friend's home. She had sat before them, respectful yet wary, chakra whirling within her bright and wild and raging as if it took the slightest word to have her sprinting away once more.
Her eyes darted between the three men blankly, as if she were seeing something else, daring them to try anything, tense and ready for the slightest provocation. They did nothing of the sort, instead placing a shogi board in front of her. She was admittedly horrible at the game, but she was also a shinobi so she did something to help her cheat. And if the room had gained a chill despite it being at the height of summer, Shikaku had taken it at face value. They all did.
Genma falls into line beside Shisui, ready to sprint the younger away from any perceived threat. Lions were protective of their prides after all. And no matter how skilled Shisui grew to be nor how old he was, it was irrelevant in the eyes of his squad leader. He would always be Squad Ru's cub. (Genma refused entry of anyone onto the squad that was younger than Shisui for that exact reason.)
Itachi entered next, and he was quick to slide himself back against Shisui's side. He was so young and so small, and so stressed. Sumika raged within her mind. She had cared not for the Clan's planned coup, but if they wanted one so bad, then she could give them one. She could take over the clan and have her own appointed elders at her side. Nobody said that they needed to be alive.
Fugaku-sama was next, pausing at the sight of Chiitah, who had sworn and threatened both him, the Clan Elders, the Clan Heads, the Village Elders, the Hokage, and the Daimyo himself that she would never take up her mask again and if anyone tried to make her, it would be one of the people before her that she would kill. Considering that there were only four people skilled enough to take her on, two being her twin brother and his best friend, her clan's heir, the other two being their captains who were protective of their squads… well, it was in everyone's best interest to leave her alone. It was reinforced when she went to Inoichi for therapy, something that most shinobi turned away from and the man was so horrified by her trauma that he burned her file and would have burned her mask if he had been able to find it.
Fugaku prays for his life as he continues into the room before catching sight of Shisui lying on the couch. The Clan Leader snarled in anger at the bandages decorating his body… the bandage wrapped around his eye, and he was no genius like his son and two clan members, but not even an idiot would be unable to understand what happened. He moves over to him quickly, hands hovering over the boy as if to touch him. He doesn't. Instead, he grabbed his son's hand in a comforting grip.
Chiitah looked on in approval even as her gaze was once more drawn to the door.
Yugao strode back into the room, taking place in her squad's formation around the room. Infallible as always, mission oriented. She would be a good captain whenever Kakashi finally retires. She spares a glance for her teammate, the way he curls into his Father while clinging to his older cousin. There was a flash of pain and fury in her eyes before she pushed it back to flank her captain.
And finally, the Hokage enters the room.
Chiitah sits almost impossibly straighter in her seat, eyes narrowed behind her mask, but the glow of her sharingan, still as threatening as ever. "Hokage-sama," she starts. "The last time I wore this mask before you, I heavily implied that the next time I wore it, murder would follow right behind it. And well, I am, hmm, not requesting… informing you of my mission to drag Shimura Danzō to the pits of hell." Her voice hardened, "Or die trying."
Hiruzen looked at her, poised and deadly. She sat as if she were the Queen, and the world was her kingdom. It was almost as if she had never taken the mask off in the first place. He looked around the room, taking in the two ANBU squads that had the night week off as they were both coming back from long-term missions. He takes in the clan heads that were in the room, quiet as Shikaku had made his way to flank his student. He takes in Chōza standing between his teammates protectively, strong and unrepentant. He takes in Fugaku on his knees beside Inoichi and in front of his son as they huddle around— Oh. Oh, no. They huddle around Shisui's prone form, the bandages on his body.
(There were whispers that surrounded the twins. To forcibly separate the two of them would lead to flames consuming the world until they were reunited and destruction of innumerable magnitude evident in the spirits of their respective genin teams that followed them around. And the enemies that had tried to take them down if they caught sight of the two together.)
"I—"
"Bloodline theft is a crime punishable by death, Hokage-sama," she states. Her mangekyō whirls to life under her mask, the air chills around them as hazy outlines of the dead appear around the room. The occupants tense. Itachi and Fugaku look at her in shock, just as her brother… she had a rare mangekyō ability. "Most of the time two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Funny how I can bypass that. Tell me, what happened to Kagami-ji again?"
The Uchihas stiffen alongside the Hokage at the implications as more and more chakra pour into the room… as Kagami's spirit appears. Chiitah was inwardly amused at the way the ghost made his eyes appear empty with blood trails and a slash neck.
The Hokage almost staggers in his place, yet she pays him no mind. She stood to her feet slowly, drawing the attention of everyone but the Village's Leader. "I will be going hunting," she announced. "It will not take me long. I will like you all to be here when I come back."
She spoke the words as if she already knew the outcome.
And then she slipped into the night.
She slips between the threshold of life and death once more.
There was no scent to follow her nor trace of her steps. Just for the night, she will loosen the tight grip she had on her power. She had always been careful and in control, never showing all her cards. Never bringing attention to herself. She had been content to go under the radar. Let her brother and younger cousin soak in all the attention.
The spirits around Sumika were agitated, knowing that this would only end bloodshed. It would be a fight on two different planes, living and dead.
"There are children here," Shodai-sama hissed. "Over two dozen."
"I do not kill children," she snapped. Not anymore. Not since— she does not kill children.
Izuna-sama sneers, "There is a Fūma clan child here. The lost clan heir." Sumika remembered that. Their cousin clan had been visiting Konoha for business, hoping to establish a shop within the village for their Fūma Shurikens. The same night as the Hyūga Incident. The child had been stolen in the midst of the night. It was one of the biggest slights that the Police Force had faced.
"I sense the Mokuton," Nidaime commented, looking at his brother. "It's weaker than the one Neko has."
Sumika glared. She held no love nor respect for those that disrespect the dead. She ate a chakra pill, feeling the effects instantly as her reserves almost overwhelmed her coils. She cared not. "Where is Danzō?"
"On the lowest level. Being prepped for surgery," Kagami-ji sneered. She nodded once. With a small tug, her chakra unfurled from within her, covering at least half of the village in its entirety. A cyclone of unbridled fire that gained strength with every brush of wind. Her mangekyō swirled to life, pulling spirits from the pure lands to stand at her side. Hashirama stands behind as per usual, hands already coated in healing chakra to wash away the strain of the mangekyo. Kagami-ji, Madara-sama, Izuna-sama, and Tobirama-sama appear within the living plane.
She stepped through the doors. The Ne agents moved to attack her.
Shisui's chakra from his eye was directly below her.
Sumika charged.
There are more souls in the ghostly plain.
There is blood coating the walls.
A single body moves down the hall in determination.
Cuts and welts and bruises faded as quickly as they came.
The air was staunch with the scent of charred flesh, wet and moist under the feet that continued on. Children that could be sensed, were hidden in rooms. They had weapons, waiting for orders to join the fight that will never come.
Tobirama stands back alongside an Uzumaki, kneeling beside a fallen Ne agent as they come up with a counter seal for the one of their tongues.
A battalion stands guard around the infirmary doors, weapons gripped tightly in their hands. Susanoo whirled to life, yellow as the sun, bringing stone down upon them as it moved forward. A Wood Golem appeared at its side, tearing through the resistance until both constructs stood underneath the moon.
Shinobi from all around Konoha awakened, rushing forward in shock and fear. Screams permitted the air of a second coming of Madara and Hashirama. The Hokage sent Squads Ro and Squad Ru out for damage control.
"More Ne agents are returning to the village," Kagami murmured. "He's calling them back for reinforcements."
A promise had been made to paint the world red.
Danzō laid on the bed, relaxed and unbothered. Shisui's eye whirling in place of his own. "Sumika-chan, I suppose I should have expected you to come."
Chiitah says nothing, the air growing colder as her ever faithful guards appear at her sides.
Outside the base, Susanoo and the Golem move onwards to another base, determined to tear it all down.
Outside the base, hazy constructs of the dead appear, unable to be summoned completely onto the mortal plane.
"I—"
But Chiitah had no words to say nor was she interested in listening.
Her kunai slid through the air, Fūton extended the blade, sinking into the flesh of the councilmen in front of her. Izuna-sama snatched Shisui's eye from his socket before he could even think of using Izanagi.
The body slumps over as the spirit emerges.
Like water down a drain, her chakra draws back into her, carefully and tightly woven around her coils. Exhaustion nips at her heels, but adrenaline keeps her from collapsing. Shinobis began to flock deeper into the building now that her Susanoo and the Golem disappeared. The body was still warm, lisps of life easing away as the soul peeled away. Tobirama and the Uzamaki draw the counter seal into her flesh, and she stumbles at the immediate drain to her reserves.
She sways on her feet, feeling the pullings around her. Long chakra strings like nin wire pulling her in every direction.
"It will take time to get used to," the Uzumaki assured her. She does not want time. She wants it gone. She felt crippled with so many other beings pressing down on her. "It will open your reserves even more."
She grimaced at that. The one time she had channeled Madara-sama's chakra had grown her coils so quickly that she had to hurry to kill all her enemies just so that she could pass out in peace.
Izuna-sama places Shisui's eye into her hand, and she cradles it closely.
The sound of squelching feet gained their attention even as Kagami-ji and Tobirama-sama faced Danzō. She usually would banish him immediately to the Pure Lands or whatever hell the gods deem him worthy of, but she could not be bothered.
The first to enter the room were Squads Ro and Ru without her brother and clan heir. They spread about the room in a guard position, Inu and Raion stepped towards her, chakra curious and she inclines her head once.
She molded her chakra into a small ball of water to place the eyeball into, yet she stumbles once more for the drain on her reserves. The captains move closer, one holding her up as the other eased the stolen organ out of her hand. It's placed into a jar then into a storage scroll and then into her weapon's pouch.
The Clan Heads sans the Ino-Shika-Chō formation and her own clan leader enters the room. Chiitah stares at them impassively, the evidence damning.
She doesn't acknowledge them, but she relishes in the lick of fear that she can see in their expressions. She lets Raion and Inu lead her out of the room, ignoring the sounds of battle that only she could hear as the spirits continue to fight.
She stopped in what she noted to be the middle of the base at the being in front of her. Inu and Raion look at her in concern, hands tight around her weapons, tensed against an enemy that only she could see.
Shinigami stared down at her, at the bodies that littered the ground, and the spirits that followed in her wake. He stepped out of the pathway as she bowed in reverence. Her living guards cannot see what she does, but they follow alongside her actions.
And then they continue onwards, passing the shinobis that stand guard around the premises. Inu moved forward, barking out orders to the others while Raoin led her over to the other members of his squad. Hidden away by the trees, they surround her in placement before they spirit her away using the Hiraishin to the inside of her home.
The others jerk slightly at their abrupt appearance, but Chiitah removed her mask, throwing it to the ground to crouch in front of her brother.
Her reserves were still so terribly weak, but she ignored it as she took his hand in hers. "Mission success, anija." She opened the scroll with care, the jar holding his eye is placed carefully over his body.
A ghost entered the room. "Danzō's body has been sealed into a scroll. It will be brought directly to Inoichi for dissection," came the soothing voice of Madara-sama. She repeats the words dutifully, almost clutching to her brother closer as her sensei eased the bandages away from her brother's face. She reluctantly allowed Raion to pull her away. And well, she shouldn't— Chakra exhaustion was creeping on her quickly, but as the reimplantation of the eye happened; she pulled Hashirama's chakra forward to speed up the success and healing.
Sumika crashed to the ground, mind blanking immediately.
WORD COUNT: 3838
Comments From the Author:
1) There is a chance that I might continue this.