10:00, Oct 31, 77
For most villagers of Konoha, today was an ordinary and unimportant night. Families finished their dinner and went to bed, while those wanting to enjoy their nightlife stayed out, drinking away at bars or roaming the red light district in hunt of their next escapade.
Surprisingly however, the Hokage office was occupied by all but one of its officials - Hiruzen, Koharu and Homura. None of them spoke, but there was a palpable tension in the room, broken only by the occasional puff of Hiruzen's smoke.
The last of the four was hidden deep within his roots - his eyes closed, his fingers trumming in anticipation of the coming of dawn.
A few ninjas could be seen patrolling the village, ensuring the safety of their normal brethren. However, if one were to take a closer look at those ninjas, one would notice that they weren't wearing the garb of the security force, who were usually in charge of maintaining order - or the ANBU, who were the Hokage's guards - but instead black cloaks that covered their entire bodies that helped them blend into the darkness of the night along with animal masks covering their faces.
These ninjas ran across rooftops and jumped over walls, like silent spiders crawling across the village. Every now and then, they stopped, scanning the village quickly to ensure that everything was as it was supposed to be. Many a times, their gazes focused on the distant Uchiha Clan complex, before turning around just as quickly and moving on to other regions.
Suddenly, one of the ninjas patrolling a few kilometres outside the village paused, quickly turning around to face away from the village while simultaneously pulling out a kunai and assuming a combat stance. Noticing this, the two ninjas behind him started scanning their surroundings for an enemy.
Within a moment, they started to hear a continuous boom - and it was getting louder, increasing noticeably with each second .
"Hitori, should we alert the other tea-" tried asking one of the two ninjas to the first one, yet even before he could finish his sentence, the ninjas felt a blur pass by them, followed by a violent gust of wind and an explosion of noise that rang in their ears like tinnitus.
Realising that the ninja was heading towards the village, Hitori quickly turned in the direction of the blur, calling out to his teammates,
"Quickly! Inform the other teams!"
Without looking back to see if his team followed his order, Hitori quickly chased after the blur, intent on capturing whoever dared to break into his master's village so brazenly.
'Who could it be? No, it doesn't matter. Master gave me the duty of ensuring that nothing goes against his plan tonight, and I need to make sure that it doesn't.'
However, Hitori immediately realised that he wouldn't be able to catch up with the intruder's speed, and so decided to cast the instant body technique, teleporting in short jumps towards the intruder.
Suddenly however, a flash of light erupted from the intruder's body, blinding the ninja for a second. In the next instant, the attacker disappeared from the ninja's sight, with the only sign of his existence being the slowly diminishing sonic boom that he left in his wake.
Noticing this, the chasing ninja started to use more and more chakra, hoping to match the speed of the retreating figure. However, no matter how much chakra he poured into the technique, he could no longer see the intruder. Realising this, the ninja slowed down a bit, however, he still continued moving forward, after all -
'I know where he's going.'
The ninja thought, staring at the Uchiha Clan compound getting closer and closer to him.
###
Noticing the ninja chasing him, Kazuo quickly entered into his lightning release chakra mode, reaching speeds previously only reachable by fighter jets.
At any other time, reaching speeds this high would've been a very exciting moment, but at this moment the only thing he could think of was the fact that he was still too slow.
'Please, Hikaru, please stay alive. Please not again, this can't happen to me again. I beg you, anybody, somebody, please… Please protect my brother.'
Just a second after activating lighting release mode, Kazuo, who was about to reach the Uchiha compound, was blocked by another ninja wearing the same clothes as the one who was chasing him.
The ninja suddenly appeared in front of him and cast Earth Release: Earth Style Earth Wall intending to block Kazuo for a second longer - just enough time to cast seals for another jutsu.
However, even before he could even finish 2 seals, Kazuo broke through his earth wall, placing one hand on the ninja's head and the other on his neck before violently ripping him apart, throwing away the two pieces, all in a single instant.
'F*ing root. I should've disabled him instead, they don't deserve such a quick death' thought Kazuo, his sharingan spinning eerily.
Redirecting his attention, Kazuo broke through the wall of the Uchiha compound and dashed straight inside, uncaring for the obstacles along his way.
Within less than a second, he had already reached his house. Not caring about the damage he would cause, Kazuo instantly jumped towards the window on the first floor, choosing efficiency over etiquette. However, his landing into the house was not as heroic as imagined. Instead, the moment his feet touched the ground, he slipped on a liquid and nearly tripped.
Of course, he righted himself in an instant, however, when he noticed what he slipped on, his eyes widened and his hands began to tremble. Following the trail of the liquid, his brain found itself unable to comprehend the sight in front of him.
Falling onto his knees, Kazuo quickly crawled his way to the body of a young boy lying on the ground beside the bed, blood dripping out from a slit in his throat.
"No no no no no no no no no no no, Hikaru please, don't do this to me, please don't do this to me."
Gently placing Hikaru's head on his lap, Kazuo quickly channeled chakra through his hands, lighting them up in a green glow that he quickly placed on top of the wound.
Feeling a familiar warmth beneath his head, Hikaru forced himself to open his eyes, his hands quickly wrapping around his brother's, preventing Kazuo from healing his wound.
"You're here, big brother," he whispered, the corner of his mouth curling upwards a bit.
"It's so cold, brother. Is this what father and mother felt when they died? " he spoke, each word punctuated with a raspy gasp, a desperate attempt by his body to grasp onto the last straws of life.
"Don't speak! DOn't say anything. Your body can't handle any more stress! Give me a minute and I'll heal you back to normal! You won't even see a scar!" whispered Kazuo, increasing the chakra of the Mystical Palm technique to the limit.
Letting out a cough, Hikaru forced himself to smile and said,
"It's fine brother. Even though I'm just a small hare, I know for a fact that I can't be saved. I've lost too much blood, brother, so don't waste your chakra on me."
"No, no. You're not a hare, you're a lion! And a lion never gives up does he? So don't give up on me Hikaru, I promised to keep you safe. And I never break my promises."
"Brother," said Hikaru, his voice tinged with a hint of madness and he clutched his brother's hands with the last of his energy.
"Look at me brother. I can't be saved… Instead, I want you to promise me something else."
Up until now, Kazuo hadn't dared to look at Hikaru's face. He refused to believe another sibling of his would die, that he would fail once again as an elder brother.
However, hearing his little brother speak to him with such desperation, Kazuo forced himself to look into his brother's eyes, into those eyes filled with so much love and admiration that they placed him on a pedestal high above everyone else.
Slowly, he watched those eyes fill with hatred, hatred so dark it extinguished all but one spark of light in his eyes. Slowly, he watched the sharingan start to spin, the tomoe blending into a single line as Hikaru closed his eyes and ground his teeth in pain.
The next second, Hikaru's eyes flew wide open, but this time, his sharingan was no longer the standard three tomoe sharingan, instead, it had a beautiful pattern to it, like a rose that had just bloomed.
Realising something, Kazuo let out a smile that seemed worse than crying, as he slowly stopped channeling his chakra into the Mystic Palm technique and instead started stroking his brother's cheeks, tears dripping from the corner of his eyes onto Hikaru's face.
"Promise me brother, that you will not take revenge for me. Take these eyes of mine and run, brother. You're not strong enough to fight him, brother. I - I don't want you to die too brother. Promise me brother, you, you cannot die here, you have to liv- *cough**cough*"
Squeezing Kazuo's hand with the last of his strength, Hikaru looked straight into his brothers eyes for the last time and said
"Promise me brother, promise me you'll live!"
"I promise, I promise you Hikaru, I won't die…"
Hearing this, a smile bloomed on Hikaru's face, while the light in his eyes slowly dimmed, until there was nothing left but the dim grayness of death.
The moment Hikaru lost his breath, Kazuo's heart began to beat faster and faster. Yin chakra rushed out of brain in droves and gathered into his eyes, causing him so much pain that blood started dripping out of the corners of his eyes.
And yet, even through all the pain he felt, Kazuo forced his eyes to stay open, burning the sight of his brother into his eyes. Eventually , the pain in his eyes reduced, before coming to a complete stop .
Feeling the new power growing in his eyes, Kazuo hugged his brother, drowning himself in his brother's dissipating warmth. Slowly, his body started to tremble while he pressed his hand onto his mouth, trying to control himself.
However , this time he couldn't control himself - no, he didn't want to control himself. And so, in the death of a night, a distraught laugh resounded throughout the Uchiha compound, echoing across houses now empty.
"Hahahaha, gods really do exist, don't they? After all, who else could explain this fate?" Kazuo said, a mix of tears and blood dripping down his face, his body trembling.
NEW!
Mangekyo Sharingan!
Abilities: Right eye: Man'nōyaku: Instantly heal anyone (only the living)
Left eye: Fūjin: Teleport anywhere you've been to before
[The Development System]
Host: Kazuo Uchiha
Physique: 50
Spirit: 50 -> 100
Chakra: 50 -> 100 (1 is the average jonin chakra)
Bloodline Limit: Sharingan - 3 tomoe, Mangekyo Sharingan
Jutsus:
Learned:
Fire Release: Great Fireball, Flame Bullet, Flame Spear, Great Fire Annihilation, Great Dragon Fire….
Lighting Release: Lightning Chakra Mode, Lightning Shadow Clone, Lightning g Cutter, Chidori….
Yin Release: Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique, Demonic Illusion: g Mirror Heaven and Earth Change…
Under-Development
Destruction Release (Fire, Lightning, Yin): 75%
Rinnegan: 30% -> 45%
Mangekyou Sharingan: 30% -> 100%
###
Slowly placing his brother's body onto the bed, Kazuo slowly wiped away the tears on his brother's face, giving him a small smile.
"I'm sorry Hikaru, but your elder brother doesn't have the capacity to take your eyes away from you. I wonder, does that make me weak?" With an ever so slowly growing smile, he continued,
"But don't worry, I'm far stronger than the ones who did this to you."
Taking a seat beside his brother, Kazuo continued,
"You know, I never spent a lot of time with you, because I thought that I needed to hurry, hurry up and grow stronger, strong enough to protect you from tonight. I knew you felt lonely, but I believed that once we could pass this disaster, we would have enough time to bond and live a happy life."
"But in the end, I always fail. I was an orphan in my previous life, so when I came here I swore to cherish my family. And yet, fate has played such a cruel trick on me. I failed to save our parents and our elder sister from the accursed war, and once again, I failed to be here for you. Am I simply cursed to lose my family?"
Slowly getting up from the bed, Kazuo held Hikaru's face once more, before smiling and whispering.
"Fortunately, this is a world of immortals and ninjas. Nothing is impossible in this world, not even revival."
Stroking his brother's cheeks, Kazuo grinned from ear to ear, the mangekyo in his eyes spinning faster and faster.
"Don't worry Hikaru, just rest for a while. I'll bring you back in no time. In fact, I'll bring back everyone; mother, father and elder sister. I will not stop until we reunite as a family once again."
Pulling out a sealing scroll, Kazuo washed away the blood from Hikaru's body and dressed him in cleaner clothes. He then wrapped him up in bandages, carefully placing him into the seal scroll.
Having done that, Kazuo got up and made his way to the window.
'Maybe I should thank Itachi - after all, he did open my eyes to reality. Until now, I had naively believed that things had changed due to my appearance. I thought I had become close enough to Itachi that he wouldn't take such a radical step, I thought that I had convinced Sarutobi to peacefully deal with the Uchiha.'
Letting out a miserable chuckle, Kazuo stared out the window.
'It's high time I realise that nobody in this world is interested in talking.'
'Well, nobody except Naruto.'
Noticing the root ninjas gathering around his house, Kazuo slowly stopped laughing. He knew that Itachi would probably come here too. In fact, that was what he was hoping for.
With eyes as cold as the north pole, Kazuo reached in front of him, and out of thin air, pulled out a test tube filled with a green liquid.
"I never thought I would have to use your eyes, father. I hope you can forgive me for this, because I can't bear to use Hikaru's."
"System, replace my eyes with my father's."
[Very well, host.]
Not even an instant later, another bout of blinding pain hit Kazuo, as he collapsed onto his knees for the second time today. This was a pain much greater than what he went through while awakening his mangekyo, but to Kazuo, no amount of pain could compare to that of losing his family.
After a few moments, Kazuo slowly opened his eyes, feeling the changes that took place.
Looking around once again, Kazuo could feel his eyesight had become better once again. He could see each blink that the root ninjas made, he could see the minute rips and tears in their uniform, he could even predict the next action they would take.
"Well then, I believe it's time to deal with these fools."
In the next moment, Kazuo jumped out of the window, not even bothering to hide himself.
The moment he landed on the ground, before the root ninjas could even react, Kazuo had already appeared behind them, blood dripping down his sword.
The root ninjas meanwhile, just felt a gush of wind around them before their upper halves slid off their lower halves, their consciousness belatedly realising what had happened before leaving their body.
Kazuo on the other hand, didn't even bother looking back, and instead began to walk towards the centre of the compound, where the clan leader's house was.
Where Uchiha Itachi was.
On his way there, Kazuo decided to take the long route, walking around the compound in concentric circles, in hopes that he could find some surviving Uchiha. After all, these were people he had lived with for more than 20 years - they were part of his family.
Unfortunately, even until he reached the center of the compound, he had only found 15 surviving Uchiha. Everytime he came across a survivor, he quickly used Man'nōyaku to heal them fully, although every time he did, he felt pain flash across his heart, as he remembered his brother's body lying inside the scroll.
In fact, along the way, Kazuo came across a lot of root ninjas, but this time, he didn't bother killing them in an instant. No, he trapped them in an illusion that kept replaying their worst memories constantly, traumatising them for the rest of their life.
Usually casting Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique so many times would've drained his chakra quickly, but his new eternal mangekyo sharingan once again increased his chakra limit, allowing him to trap most of the ninjas in the illusion. For the ones that resisted, Kazuo simply chopped off all their limbs, leaving them wailing in pain, unable to do anything apart from watch him leave.
Any ninja that showed up on his path either of the two ends, until finally, the root ninjas realised that they couldn't do anything to him and simply started to follow him from a distance, no doubt reporting back to Danzo about Kazuo.
Having made his way to the center of the clan's territory, Kazuo healed the last surviving Uchiha he could find - one of the captains of the security force.
"Am I…still alive?" the Uchiha asked, slowly getting up. Staring at the person in front of him, the Uchiha recognised Kazuo before his eyes shot open wide, the three tomoe rotating wildly.
"Kazuo! Why are you here? Weren't you on a mission? No! It doesn't matter! Run! Run away from here!" shouted the Uchiha, immediately picking up a kunai lying around and jumping to his feet.
Placing his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder, Kazuo said
"Calm down uncle Sukuma. There's no need to panic, everything is fine. You're safe now."
Hearing this, the Sukuma finally noticed the other clan members - along with a bunch of root ninjas tailing them at a distance. Instantly bringing his kunai up, Sukuma instantly started to cast seals, wanting to attack the root ninjas before they could come closer.
Seeing this, Kazuo let out a slight laugh and pulled down his uncle's kunai.
"Calm down uncle, I told you, we're safe. Those ants don't dare to come within 100 meters of me."
Hearing this, Sukuma suddenly noticed it. These ninjas always hovered around at a distance, as if an invisible boundary was present between them.
Looking at Kazuo and the other surviving Uchiha, Sukuma asked,
"Why is this happening?! How dare the root attack and slaughter the Uchiha clan! Where is the security force? How can the Hokage simply allow this to happen?? How could - "
"Calm down, uncle Sukuma. You nearly died back there, I think you should take a minute to relax."
Hearing this, instead of calming down, a light bloomed in Sukuma's eyes. He quickly grabbed Kazuo's shoulders,
"Kazuo, you, you just revived me didn't you! Can you revive your aunty also? And Kurami! They're right here, see, they're lying right there."
However, noticing Kazuo's clenched jaw and trembling hands, Sukuma began to violently shake him,
"Please! Kazuo, it doesn't matter if you have to send me back, just revive my wife and child! I beg you, Kazuo, I'm begging you!" Sukuma said, falling onto his knees and hugging Kazuo's legs.
Immediately moving away, Kazuo came and stood beside Sukuma, who was now kneeling on the ground, crying and begging for Kazuo to revive his wife and daughter.
Closing his eyes, Kazuo let out a sigh and bent down, slowly picking his uncle back up. Meanwhile, the other clan members also surrounded them, each of their faces a mixture of anguish and anger. All of them had lost their loved ones today, and all of them had felt pain.
One of the clan members reached out and patted Sukuma on the back,
"Don't cry old man. Sister Jiko would be ashamed of you crying like a baby. And don't blame Kazuo, you also know that no one can revive the dead. It's already a great boon that he managed to heal us this much."
Hearing this, Sukuma slowly stopped crying, before he quickly knelt before Kazuo again, one knee on the ground and his head bowed down.
Of course, Kazuo quickly moved out of the way, unwilling to have his elders bow before him.
"Kazuo, you have my eternal thanks for bringing me back to life. I'm sorry for asking you to do the impossible - just think of it as my old mind rambling to itself."
Getting back up, Sukuma turned to the clan member who spoke and looked him in the eye.
"Thank you, Homura," he said, nodding towards him.
Letting out a smile worse than death, Homura said,
"No problem. For now, we have to find that traitor and settle the core with him, and then the rest of the leaf village," his eyes twirling, as a unique pattern blooming in his sharingan.
Hearing Homura, the Uchiha surrounding Kazuo nodded, each of them displaying their mangekyou sharingan.
Letting out a cracked smile, Sukuma nodded, his gaze turning towards the clan leader's compound, his sharingan slowly transforming into a unique pattern.
"Then let's go shall we. I would hate to make our dear genius wait for any longer."
———————————————X—————————————————
Stepping into the clan leader's compound, the first thing Kazuo and the other Uchiha noticed was the blood dripping out of the living room.
Snorting, Homura whispered,
"The beast, he didn't even spare his own parents. How could the Uchiha have given birth to such a monster?"
"Elders, please, allow me to deal with him personally," said Kazuo, his eyes narrowing, having sensed Itachi inside the room.
"I have something amazing in store for him … and I can't wait to give it to him."
Shooting forward, Kazuo instantly broke through the door, his hands reaching for Itachi, trying to get a hold of his back.
Unfortunately, Kazuo touched nothing, as the moment he was about to grab Itachi, Itachi exploded into a dozen crows which flew away into the night sky.
Teleporting to the corner of the room, Itachi stared coldly at Kazuo, squatting on his toes with his blood stained sword held horizontally in front of him.
"You, why are you here?"
"So you won't even call me big brother anymore?" whispered Kazuo into Itachi's ear.
Reacting almost immediately, Itachi once again flashed away, leaving behind a book in his place, now appearing outside the house in their back garden, his eyes never tearing away from the living room.
Slowly making his way out the living room, Kazuo smiled, a cold, chilling smile that gave Itachi goosebumps - something he hadn't felt even as he murdered his entire clan.
"As for your question, this is my home. If I wasn't here, where in this entire world would I be? No, instead, the question you should ask yourself is something entirely different - "
Holding a kunai to Itachi's neck, Kazuo once again whispered in his ear,
"Why are you not dead yet?"
Attempting to stab Kazuo, Itachi thrust his sword backwards, only to suddenly find himself kneeling in the middle of the living room once again, his hands holding his parent's bodies, surrounded on all sides by Uchiha who were supposed to be dead - killed by his own hands.
Sitting opposite to him with a glass of wine in his hands, Kazuo spoke,
"You know, I always thought I had changed something. Not enough to prevent this tragedy, but I was confident that I had at least delayed it - delayed it long enough for me to grow stronger. Stronger than anybody in this world."
Letting out a chuckle, Kazuo shook his head, downing the glass of wine in one go. Pouring himself another, he filled another glass and slid it towards Itachi. He then threw the wine gourd towards Homura, who caught it and immediately took a swig out of it, before passing it on to the others.
"Did you know Itachi? I honestly thought we could understand each other, I thought of us as the same kind of people. I believed both of us wanted to protect our family above everything else."
"To me, the entire village is my family," replied Itachi, holding his sword in his hands, his mangekyou sharingan spinning furiously.
Waving his hands, Kazuo said,
"Don't bother trying to break an illusion, we're in the real world right now."
Once again downing the wine in the glass, Kazuo continued,
"I'm glad you consider the village as your family. It is something only a few Uchiha are able to feel. You have learned well from Shisui. However - ", paused Kazuo, his eternal mangekyou staring directly at Itachi, who immediately shifted his gaze downwards.
"You clearly don't consider the Uchiha as part of the village."
Throwing away the glass in his hands, Kazuo stood up, walking towards the main gate,
"Instead of looking at the Uchiha and Village as one entity, you instead placed them on opposite sides of each other. You measured the value of both, and decided that it would be better for the Village to continue and the Uchiha to cease. I'm afraid Shisui is thrashing around in his grave right now, cursing eight generations of your ancestors," smirked Kazuo.
"Do you know why I thought we were similar, Itachi? It was because I could see it in your eyes - your eyes that sparkled and lit up with joy, full of hope for the future. Those were the same eyes I had when I looked at Hikaru - until today."
Turning around, Kazuo looked right into Itachi's eyes, who had somehow come up right behind, his sword at Kazuo's throat. The only reason he didn't move it forward was the 15 Uchiha surrounding him, their weapons mere centimeters away from his vital points.
"Where is Sasuke?" questioned Itachi, his breath heavy.
"Don't worry, he's not dead. In fact, he should be on his way here right now."
Turning back to face the main gate, Kazuo asked Itachi,
"Do you remember the question I asked you at the beginning?"
"Why am I not dead yet?" responded Itachi, his teeth grinding against each other.
"Indeed. You see, killing you would be too simple. It would be unfair to us. And so, I came up with this idea. Didn't you want to protect the village? Didn't you want Sasuke to grow up in a loving village, grow stronger until the day he could defeat you and gain an eternal mangekyou sharingan? You wanted him to continue your legacy of protecting this village didn't you?"
Noticing a tiny figure making his way towards the compound, Kazuo's lips stretched in a wicked smile, his eyes narrowing up in a curve as he finished,
"Well, what if he were to know of the truth behind you and the Hokage, behind how Danzo treated our clan like consumables, and the fact that his own brother decided to side with the Hokage instead of his family? I wonder what he would do? Would he destroy this village with his own two hands? Would he kill the Sarutobi the same way you slaughtered the Uchiha? Would he cut off Danzo's head the same way you cut off your parents head?"
Opening his arms to hold the child stumbling towards him, Kazuo turned to look at Itachi one final time as he mouthed,
[Only that would be a fitting revenge].