Let's start this from the beginning

Genin Days

VI

They had to wait for nearly eight hours, during which Itachi thankful noted that they were indeed treated more like guests than prisoners, before Mei finally came to talk to them.

Unfortunately, he had to spend this time alone with a foul-tempered Anko—as well as their guard, of course—which was anything but comfortable.

"It was a stupid idea to come here!" she was ranting just now. "They have no reason to let us go. And you just went along with it! Are you so eager to die when you're only six years old?"

"Technically," he said, "I would die as a seven-year-old, seeing that my birthday has passed several days ago."

Of course, it appeared that hadn't been the right thing to say either.

"What?! When? And why didn't you say anything?"

Well, at least she now sounds more surprised and offended than angry.

"On the second day after we arrived at the orphanage. And I saw no reason to tell anyone because we were on a mission, which takes priority."

"But you could have told us anyway! We need to celebrate later. You know, if we survive this and all. Oh, what do you say about—"

"As interesting as this conversation seems to be, I'm afraid I must interrupt it," another voice mercifully stopped Anko before she could go on about what plans she had for his birthday party.

Not that he planned to have one in the first place, mind you, but Anko was the kind of person that didn't understand the meaning of 'no'.

"Terumi-sama," he said while turning around. "How can we help you?"

"Oh, you already did." She gave him a kind smile. "The information about your mission was most helpful. We compared the numbers, and it seems there was an increase in assassinations of our supporters in the villages where an increasing number of orphan children were reported the weeks prior as well. While no definite proof, this, put together with the information you provided us with, draws a clear picture. These things must be connected."

"Should you tell us that?" Anko asked. "I mean, isn't this some kind of secret you should keep away from us so that we can't tell anyone about it?"

Terumi scoffed. "After Ito-san ran her mouth while you were still in our presence, I sincerely doubt you couldn't have come to the same conclusion on your own. Be that as it may be, we need to do something about this. All the children have to be brought somewhere for re-education before they can be forced to obey and spy for the Mizukage, and the most logical choice on this island would be their headquarter located on the south coast. As thanks for your help in exposing this trickery, we will aid you in returning home as soon as we took care of this problem. Tomorrow, our people will gather and destroy the headquarter and, if possible, free the children. If all goes well, you will be in your way home the day after that."

"That's great! Thank you very—" Anko started, only for Itachi to interrupt her.

"I want to help."

"What?!" two surprised exclamations of varying degrees of shock were heard, and Itachi couldn't help but feel a little smug that he had managed to break the till now perfectly calm facade of the future Mizukage.

"I'm not sure this would be appropriate, Uchiha-san," Terumi-sama said a moment later after having regained the grasp on her emotions. Anko wasn't as restrained, though:

"Itachi, you can't be serious! What are you thinking?"

"Our mission was it to save the children that were kidnapped. Under normal circumstances, this would be impossible now. We would be forced to retreat. If we join with you, on the other hand, success is very likely. Furthermore," he quickly continued when he saw both young women open their mouths, momentarily foregoing politess for the sake of finishing his argument, "as the carrier of a Kekkei Genkai myself, I find the philosophy of the Mizukage and his followers disgusting and offensive. I would gladly take this chance to harm his cause."

There was a moment of silence before Mei spoke up. "I can understand your reasoning, especially the second one as I'm a Kekkei Genkai user as well, but I don't think that this is enough to allow you to accompany us. Besides, your presence alone is unlikely to change the course of the battle. "

"Also," Anko added, astonishingly calm, "you would need to explain to Hokage-sama why exactly you chose to risk your life to aid some foreign shinobi, regardless of whether their goal is noble or something you personally agree with. No, wait; one could actually argue that aiding rebels in overthrowing their current kage is equal to harming Konoha, actually, as it worsens our relationship with the official government of another Great Nation—and no offence to you, Terumi-sama, but that's just how it looks from the outside. And, just on a side note, I don't necessarily want to be the one who explains to your father—who is the head of the KMPF!—why his son died under my watch."

Itachi gave them both a small smile that probably did nothing to reassure them he wasn't either insane or an idiot.

"My safety won't be in danger, so you don't need to worry about that. And you're right, Terumi-sama, that my fighting prowess won't be a deciding factor in the battle itself either. However, I can give you something else:

"I can almost certainly guarantee the safety of all the children."

While not necessarily easy, Itachi had been able to persuade both women to let him help in the end after explaining how exactly he planned to save the children.

That was rather fortunate, as it helped his long-term plans immensely. He was rather confident that Mei Terumi wouldn't forget about this day and its events any time soon, at any rate.

His plan was simple but effective:

First, he would create a crow clone to sneak into their hideout. Considering that the ability to use a summons' contract for a technique like this was almost unheard of and in the case of a clone technique in particular, to the best of Itachi's knowledge, outright impossible impossible to pull off for anyone who didn't have a contract with either the crows or the snakes, no one would bat an eye at a murder of crows. Then, he would sneak to where the children were kept and hide them under a Genjutsu that made everyone who came looking for them think they had vanished.

Sure, a sufficiently powerful or observant shinobi would be able to look right through it, but he doubted such a shinobi would be on guard duty for a bunch of children or come check on them when they were already busy dealing with an attack on their base.

It was during the early hours of dawn that a murder of crows circled overhead the small hideout that had its back on the coast. It was pretty obvious that this base wasn't a very significant one, which wasn't a surprise if one took its location into account. The island it was located on wasn't only one of the smallest islands of the Land of Water, but it also hadn't any notable resources. There had also never been any great population on it, either, be it a shinobi or civilian one. All in all, there were probably less than a thousand inhabitants on this piece of dirt. Its only use was as an early warning system in case some country invaded them from the west, in which case this island would be used to slow the enemy down and buy time for the other islands to prepare for the real fight.

The base was small, only three or four times the size of the rebels' camp had been. Even so, much of the space was nothing but empty ground. There were only three actual buildings:

The first appeared to be a tavern of some kind if the music he could hear from it was anything to go by and was located close to the ocean. The second one was rather indescribable, having no special features whatsoever, and thus gave no outwardly clue as to what its purpose might be. The third building was also the only construction that looked like someone bothered to keep it in decent condition. It was a big tower, being at least five times the height of the 'tavern', and was built from robust-looking grey stone.

The entire area was surrounded by a twenty metres high wall which was built from the same stone as the tower. While he doubted that it could hold against some of the more powerful techniques like the ones that at least Mei should be able to pull off, it looked durable enough to hold of regular shinobi force for a bit. Its main purpose was probably to slow enemies down anyway instead of permanently keeping them out, so there was no need to be almost indestructible like the wall that surrounded Konoha. He could see people patrolling on it at regular intervals, too.

Itachi briefly wondered where all the inhabitants—which couldn't number more than a hundred or two at absolute most—were sleeping and living, but the logical guess would be that the buildings continued underground.

In all honesty, it was kind of insulting to call this base a 'headquarter'. The entire complex wasn't built to resist a siege, but to serve as a lookout for possible invaders. Once they were under attack, they would be little more than pigs in a slaughterhouse.

The Mizukage must have concluded that an invasion from the west was highly unlikely for the time being and consequently stopped properly funding or staffing it to focus his money and manpower instead on the nation's internal problems.

But alas, that wasn't his problem. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Itachi thought a moment about where the children might be before deciding that the most likely location would be either the second building itself or, alternatively, the underground beneath it. The fact that this building was one of the two buildings that had guards, the other being the tower that probably was the heart of this base, was more than enough to come to that conclusion. It also helped that both guards looked bored out of their minds, obviously not expecting to do anything interesting any time soon.

Deciding to proceed, he followed up on his plan and flew down. The left guard, who had been enjoying his meal for this evening, gave a surprised shout when his food was stolen out of his hand when he was just about to bite into it. His fellow guard laughed for a second before he realized that other crows were rummaging through his bag in a search for more food, too.

Neither they nor the amused onlookers from afar noticed the number of crows that flew through the previously closed door, nor that it shut close behind them afterwards. Naturally, with a wall and a door between them, nobody noticed how the aforementioned crows formed a body once they were alone in the room, either.

It seemed that the entire building, at least on this floor, was one single room, filled to the brim with weapons of all kinds. The only other notable detail was the stairs leading downwards.

Huh, he thought. Seems like this is the armoury, then.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, he took a fair amount of kunai, shuriken, some wire, a wakizashi, and some other useful-looking equipment. One never knew when such tools would come in handy. Only afterwards did he start to slowly descend downstairs, careful to move cautiously yet swiftly. He was on a schedule, after all.

He needed to follow the stairs for about a minute or two before finally seeing its end. Itachi was just about to descend fully onto this new floor when he suddenly stood still.

There were voices.

"...new bunch didn't arrive yet..."

"...problems?"

"Nah,... Taro... never..."

"But... -sama might..."

Itachi could hear three different voices, two male ones and one female one, which meant that there were at least three people. He had no way of knowing if there were more enemies who just didn't speak up yet because he, for some reason, couldn't sense the exact number of chakra signatures. He assumed that they must have done something to block the senses of invaders. He couldn't even dare to give a peak because if he interpreted the echo of their voices correctly, the corridor appeared to be straight with no turns to hide in.

They would spot him immediately.

Itachi had only a few options he could take right now, and after a short consideration, he decided to take the easiest, most straightforward one.

He used the Transformation Technique to look like one of the guards from outside the building while simultaneously putting his sword, the wakizashi he had taken only a few minutes earlier, on his back. He then also used a Genjutsu to hide the fact that it was there in the first place.

Disguise in place, right down to the same bored expression he had seen the man wear earlier, he calmly continued walking downstairs, not bothering to silence his steps anymore.

The people, which fortunately numbered only three after all, noticed him a moment after he saw them, but that was enough to give him the chance to determine their threat level.

There were indeed two men and one woman, the latter apparently also being the only fighter of the group while the other two looked more akin to scientists. He obviously couldn't be sure as one didn't need to wear standard shinobi uniforms to be one and it was quite easy for experienced shinobi to hide the typical signs that would give them away, but considering that they had no reason to hide their profession inside their base while surrounded by 'allies', he thought his estimation was most likely correct.

"Shindo? What are you doing down here? You know you can't skip your shift again or you will be punished," the sole woman of the group said, sounding fond and exasperated at the same time. The way she shook her head, making her brown ponytail shake with her every move, and massaged her brows gave the impression that this wasn't the first time 'Shindo' had skipped his duty, and that she was used to it by now.

Itachi didn't stop walking when he gave a weak smile in response, raising his right hand as if to scratch the back of his head. Only a few more steps...

"I know, I know. But there were these crazy crows, you know! They came down from the sky and—"

He didn't finish the sentence. As soon as he was within range, he grabbed the handle of his sword with his right hand, the one he had put into position when he had started to 'scratch the back of his head', and slashed it downwards at the kunoichi.

The woman hadn't even time to widen her eyes in surprise before she was dead.

Her two companions didn't immediately understand what was happening, and by the time their brains had caught up and they realized the danger they were in, their throats were already slashed, making them drop to the floor with their mouths wide open in futil attempts to call for help.

The entire thing had hardly lasted more than a second.

Itachi looked at the two men, taking in their coats he had already noticed earlier more closely before changing his initial assumption; rather than scientists, they appeared like that of typical medical personal instead. He had some very good ideas about what their work here included and didn't like it at all,

Even less so when he thought about the fact that their patients were children.

Best case, they were there to treat the children after some too violent 'persuasive measures' were taken to make them their spies. Worst case, there were experiments conducted on them. This thought remembered him too much of Orochimaru for his liking.

Itachi could see a door around a hundred metres from his position. Continuing to walk through the corridor, he inspected his surrounding. The walls were built from a different stone than the building above the ground and didn't look like it was battered by age yet, so he assumed that this underground facility didn't exist when the base was first built and was, in fact, a recent addition. There were also no other corridors that were leading away from this one, and neither were there any other rooms other than the one he could see at the end of the floor.

Before long, he had arrived at the door, stretching his senses to feel if he could determine if and how many people were on the other side of it.

Closing his eyes, he thought there was a whole bunch of them in close proximity to the door, though he couldn't determine an exact number. Stretching his senses even farther, he could also feel another groups of people farther back in the room. Whatever they did to disturb his senses still hindered him, but reassured himself that, at the very least, he managed to get a vague idea. Also, unless he was completely off the mark, he thought it fair to assume that, judging by the sheer amount of signatures he believed to sense there, the second group of people must be the kidnapped children.

Itachi felt a wave of relief flowing through his body, happy that he had chosen correctly when he decided that this must be the building they were held in. He didn't think that there would be enough time to change his mind now and try to infiltrate another building before the attack began had he been wrong.

He opened the door and jumped into action, his Sharingan blazing while instinctively categorising the position of all eight enemies in the room. Then, upon noting that five of the eight wore clothes that identified them as medical personal like the ones earlier, he gave them the lower priority and attacked the other three men—shinobi—first.

The first enemy died by getting his throat cut before he managed to do more than reach out for his weapon. The second one was faster and slashed at him with a sword which he promptly blocked with his wakizashi.

Itachi jumped away from his spot to evade the third enemy's shuriken, all the while defending himself from the sword strikes from the person in front of him.

"How did a damn Uchiha get in here?" one of them shouted angrily.

"I don't— argh!" his partner tried to answer, but stopped talking when one of Itachi's slashes hit his shoulder.

Momentary distracted, Itachi gave him a roundhouse kick to the face before moving to finish the job, only to be stopped by the last enemy who intervened by jumping at him with a drawn kunai in each hand.

Getting some distance from both enemies by jumping back, he started weaving hand seals.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

The shinobi that had just saved his comrade had been in the process of forming hand seals of his own, probably to protect himself and his partner from the attack, but was left standing to gawk at the scene of screaming bodies as the medical personal who had tried to flee the room and had been the actual target of Itachi's attack burned alive.

"Damn you, bastard!" he screamed and rushed at him with new drive, ignoring his partners cries to stop.

Itachi waited until his enemy was almost right in front of him, with only a few feet between them, to simultaneously use a low-level Genjutsu on him and throw his sword.

As he was technically a clone, his reserves were more limited than that of his original self because he couldn't regenerate any chakra of his own. That meant that he couldn't risk wasting chakra by trying to use a Genjutsu on his enemies without being certain that it would result in a kill. The backlash that would follow should he fail wasn't something he could afford.

Right now was one such situation.

Even if the man had the necessary chakra control to break free, which was honestly a likely possibility, he would probably be too enraged to concentrate enough to do so fast enough to evade the sword that was flying at him right now. The likelihood of him surviving the attack was somewhere around zero.

He never broke free before the sword pierced his throat.

Two down, one left, he thought grimly, ignoring the smell of burned human flesh from the corner where the medical personal had died.

One second later, he had to concentrate on not falling to the ground as the earth began to shake and the sound of explosions could be heard in the distance.

The rebels' attack had begun, then.

Itachi's attention snapped back to his last living enemy when he saw him forming hand seals from the corner of his eye. Realising due to his Sharingan what technique the enemy was preparing for, he quickly decided on a course of action and rushed in his direction.

"Suiton: Mizu Kamikiri!" (Water Release: Rising Water Slicer)

A linear wave of water shot out of the man's mouth that aimed straight at Itachi's head, but he didn't dodge. Instead, he let the attack hit his body, piercing him right through his head. His body instantaneously dissolved into dozens of crows, all of them continuing to fly unperturbed in the Kiri-nin's direction. The man hadn't time to utter more than a surprised "What the—" before a half-reformed Itachi pierced his head with a kunai of his own.

The entire fight hadn't even lasted two minutes.

He checked his reserves, just to realize that he had barely a sixth of his chakra left. It would be enough for the Genjutsu he had in mind, but he doubted he could hold it for more than half an hour, if even that long at all.

It just had to be enough, then.

Itachi went over to the corner where the children were locked up in the back of the room behind a row of metal bars. Counting them quickly, he realized that there were over thirty of them; together with the children that were already doing spy work for the Mizukage all around the nation and even just this tiny island alone, the number of children excelled the number of missing children at the orphanage by a large margin. This, at least, proved his suspicion that the shinobi of this hideout also kidnapped children from somewhere other than the orphanage, probably from other spots at the coast of the Land of Wood and from diverse villages of the islands itself.

"Don't worry," he told them while trying to sound as soothing as he could. "I'm here to help you. I will stay here until my friends come to help me get you out of this place, okay?"

None of the children, all of which were cowering as far away from the bars as possible, replied.

He suppressed a sigh. It made sense that they didn't trust him after they had just witnessed him kill the other people in the room, even if these people were their captors. It would be great if he could use a Genjutsu to make them fall asleep, but he unfortunately wasn't in a position to do so right now with his low reserves as that would only cut off time from how long he would be able to hold the Grnjutsu that was meant to hide them.

Speaking of which...

Itachi concentrated for a moment before making a few hand seals, creating an illusion that would make it look like the metal bars had been destroyed and the children behind it were gone. It wasn't an especially powerful illusion, but it would do. Itachi doubted whoever would be sent to check on the kids would expect a Genjutsu hiding them instead of just assuming they were gone, so they would probably not even check for one. And even if they did, it was still very likely that they weren't very capable in detecting Genjutsu—and certainly not one created by him—as every talented shinobi was needed to defend their base.

Now all he had to do was maintaining the technique until support arrived.

Around twenty minutes later and a few kilometres away from the fighting, Itachi opened his eyes with a smile, having just received the memories of his dissolved clone. Looking up, he saw Anko and a clone of Terumi Mei looking down at him questioningly from where they stood to his right, waiting for his report.

"The mission was a success."