12 An eye for an eye

New chapter out and there isn't much else to say. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As usual, this was released a week earlier on my D1scord server. For earlier chapters and be kept up to date on what my next stories will be, feel free to join the server.

This is the link, just remove the space and replace the 1 with i: d1scord /2XN2rzuFpM

/LINE BREAK/

"Unprompted question, Kabuto. Do you know anything about the chakra draining technique?" I asked with the most casual tone I could muster after having not spoken outside of today's greeting and basic acknowledgements when I was asked whether I was doing alright.

Kabuto just looked at me like I'd grown a second head, his brow furrowing. It had started to become a bit of a game to me where I'd elicit reactions from people and take apart their thoughts like I was dissecting a cadaver.

It also might have been because I was doing supervised heart surgery on a narced up chimp.

"Come again?"

It wasn't like it was early in the day and he could excuse his shock by still having a morning brain fog. It was afternoon, and he was still off guard.

"You heard me the first time," I said, still keeping my attention trained on the manually beating heart I had under my chakra's influence as I successfully reattached the aortic valve of the monkey's heart, "I need to figure out how to do it safely and not get sick from chakra poisoning."

Kabuto still looked like he was trying to figure out what to say at the random question, but he recovered well enough and managed to give me an answer after a few seconds.

"Yes, I know how to drain chakra. In fact, it was going to be around 6 months away for you to learn, if your grasp of things had been normal."

I paused my work, carefully holding the heart steady while both hands were currently in the chest cavity of the completely sedated monkey.

"Is it a medical technique?"

"Technically, it is." Kabuto said, eying my hands for a moment before his eyes flicked back to my own, "The two purposes for the technique are to either drain an enemy of chakra to prevent Ninjutsu use, or to drain local tissues of a patient to prevent your own chakra from being impeded when you are fixing injuries. Generally it's only those with medical training that use it in combat because the technique takes time to make combat efficient."

"Hmmm." I hummed to myself, thinking of the utility of it. "Why wasn't I told of this when you were teaching me about trauma stabilization?"

Kabuto just rolled his eyes. "Because I wasn't expecting you to be ready for it fairly soon. Trust me on this, I'm continuously surprised by how much you're progressing in Iryo-ninjutsu. Theorywise, you're closer to me than you are to kids 3 or 4 years older than you with a Jonin instructor."

I stifled a grin as I thought of why. Sharingan for perfect recall, and my impeccable chakra control made me extremely efficient with my chakra so I could train with clones on top of my own training.

Plus, I had another plan cooked up that I knew would work if executed properly, and I was triggering it now.

"That's good then, because I already have someone I know who would be willing to help me with absorbing her chakra for training." I said, finally reconnecting the heart completely and I began the painstaking process of knitting the internal wound shut and preparing to put the sternum in its proper place again.

"Oh?" Kabuto looked at me curiously. "A close friend?"

I suspected why Kabuto asked whether it was a 'close' friend instead of a regular one. Draining or manipulating someone else's chakra was probably extremely uncomfortable for the target, and only someone close would be willing to freely volunteer.

"Eh," I put on a look of uncertainty, shifting my feet uncomfortably as I gestured with my gloved hands that were stained in blood, "You know what, yeah, Naruko's a close friend."

At the mention of Naruko's name, Kabuto tensed and looked down at me, mouth slightly open.

"Naruko? As in, Uzumaki Naruko, the one in your class?"

"Yes." I said slowly, looking up at him suspiciously. "Is something wrong?"

Kabuto shook his head, but still had an edge to his voice denoting his intention to steer the conversation somewhere.

"I just think you should wait on asking someone. Maybe you should find someone else other than her." He pointed out, still looking somewhat guarded.

I scowled at that, laying on a little more thickly. "It's not like her chakra would hurt me or anything, so I don't understand the issue."

Kabuto started to speak, but abruptly stopped.

I was, in my head at least, laughing like some cartoon villain as I put Kabuto in a trap. Does he say that Naruko's chakra is in fact the equivalent of Chernobyl from Kurama's chakra dripping into it, or does he run the risk that I accidentally injure or kill myself and deprive his master of a weapon?

"I mean," Kabuto said, tapping his fingers against the surgical table that the monkey was on as he tried to formulate a response, "Are you sure about that?"

I just frowned and looked at him.

"What's with the discomfort?" I asked simply, eying him speculatively.

"What?"

"Please don't be coy with me, I'm not a typical 10 year old." I said petulantly, crossing my arms to paint the image of a precocious, although still immature, kid. "Why are you worried about me asking Naruko for help, huh? Does it have something to do with a sensitive topic I'm not allowed to talk abo-" Before I could finish what I was saying, Kabuto hushed me and looked around like someone was watching.

"Don't bring that up!" He hissed, for once looking legitimately rattled. "I don't know how you figured that out, but that's an S-rank secret. Don't just randomly allude to it."

"I've known for over a year now." I said ruefully, taking a single noticeable step back from him. "So why don't you enlighten me as to why you're antsy about me getting help from her in chakra draining."

Take the bait, you four eyed bastard. Come on, take it!

After several seconds of him staring at me with narrowed eyes, Kabuto groaned under his breath and muttered something that I couldn't understand.

"Fine," He sighed, pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose and adjusting his glasses absent-mindedly, "The reason it's not safe to train it with Naruko is because she's a Jinchuriki. It makes her chakra too caustic to safely absorb."

Thanks, dipshit.

"Kabuto?"

"Yes?"

"Quick question… what's a Jinchuriki?"

There are times where you can pinpoint an exact moment in your life where you felt like the floor fell out from under you and the weight of the sun and stars were on your chest. That had happened to me just 2 years prior, and the other set of memories I had contained more than a couple of them.

I could hazard a guess that from the look on Kabuto's face, he just experienced one too.

"I… you…" His voice sounded uncertain, mixed with what looked like fear. "You said you knew!"

Kabuto was almost as white as a sheet, and his breathing was quick and short. He was startled by what I said.

"Are you alright?" I asked, furrowing my brow and looking at him suspiciously. "What's a Jinchuriki, Kabuto?"

He didn't answer me. Instead, his face twisted into a near snarl as his eyes zeroed in on mine.

"You said you knew the secret and that obviously wasn't the case!" Kabuto snapped. Like a switch, he went from almost completely unbalanced to the razor focus of an interrogator.

"Just chill out." I said, acting scandalized as I fought the urge to raise my hands up in a defensive stance. "Just tell me what it even is and we can forget whatever the hell is going on right now. I kept wondering why all the civilians glared at her constantly, and I assumed it was because she was from a foreign clan that came here only about 20 years ago."

Kabuto's expression flattened out some after I said that, looking more neutral.

"Oh," He said, blinking for a moment as he seemed to connect the dots, "That makes sense. Sorry about reacting aggressively, it's just that this is very dangerous information and I don't want to be arrested."

"No. Nonono." I said more than a little hastily, gesturing with my hands like I was trying to placate him. "Don't worry about that, I won't say anything."

Whether it was put on or not, Kabuto's shoulders sagged in relief.

With this, I was now in the clear on having a hook on Kabuto. If he tried anything, I could straight up lie and say he was trying to manipulate me into hating Naruko and that he revealed her status as a Jinchuriki to me.

Boy, was it great to be an innocent little kid.

"Thanks." Kabuto replied to my statement, getting quiet for a moment as he seemed to ponder what to say next. "If you want, Sasuke, I could help you with the chakra draining technique."

Oh, wasn't expecting that.

"That… sounds like a fantastic offer." I said slowly, letting a smile of gratitude appear on the public mask I've crafted. "But first, could you please explain to me what a Jinchuriki is? It sounds sinister, and I want to know how I can help Naruko."

Kabuto went on to reluctantly explain what a Jinchuriki is, including the history of Hashirama catching all the Bijuu, the different known ones during the Shinobi wars, and how Naruko housed the strongest one. He also stressed, extremely so, that most Bijuu cannot influence their hosts unless they were in a deeply emotional state, so Naruko was unlikely to have been influenced at any time in her life.

I suspected he went out of his way to do that to hopefully turn me against the villagers, but there's no way that he would know that I already had almost complete apathy towards them.

But as a whole, this day had just gone fantastically well. Kabuto would be at my mercy for a time, I could get some chakra draining skills under my belt, and I might just be able to let Naruko know why the villagers hate her in a way that will benefit me and insure it doesn't negatively impact Naruko.

No downsides at all.

(SCENE BREAK)

"Give you the lower hate." I mumbled to myself as I sang the inverted lyrics of a song that had currently decided to burrow its way into my head while I was helping Naruko with dodge training.

It wasn't difficult really, just me reading a book out of boredom and periodically chucking a kunai at her while she'd try and balance on a tree while pulsing as much chakra as she could into a steel ball without breaking it. It was to help with manipulating your chakra in two completely different ways, and the steel one was necessary because Naruko made the wood and marble ones explode.

"So you're going to get more help from your teache- STOP THROWING KUNAI AT MY HAIR, -TTEBEYO!" Naruko proceeded to scream, pulling her left sandal off and flinging it at me as hard as she could.

The sight of a blue sandal being flung at me by a girl hanging upside down from a tree, with her hair completely undone and hanging freely, was a fairly memorable sight, even with my Sharingan active.

As it was, the image was burned in my head and I effortlessly caught the blue projectile, tucking it close to my side and not giving it back.

"Sasuke." Naruko growled, dropping from the tree and tucking into a roll so she was on her feet almost instantly and stomping towards me. "Gimme my sandal!"

I just looked up at her, then back to my book and turned the page.

"No."

Naruko growled again and stomped her foot loudly, kicking up some grass in the process.

"It's cold and I need my shoe!" She demanded, before lunging towards me to grab it.

Sharingan still active, I tilted to the right and avoided her initial pounce. I then dropped my book gently and wrapped my left arm around hers, pulling her towards me and letting her fall to the ground.

With her loss of balance, she yelped and I shifted my legs to plant my knee on her back and my hands wrapped around her leg.

"Let me go, -ttebayo!" She shouted, thrashing under me to push me off.

With a grin that probably looked like it wouldn't be out of place on a serial killer's face as he claimed another victim, I leaned forward and grabbed her bare foot, and then proceeded to tickle her.

Naruko shrieked and tried to get away, but it was futile. I was stronger than her with me putting a fraction of chakra through my muscles and I had the leverage.

"Stop!" She whined, practically screaming as she laughed. "Stop it, please!"

After just a few seconds, I stopped and rolled off of and away from her.

I just stared at her as she scrambled back to her feet, laughing as she got up and glared at me with her face flushed pink.

"That's it, -ttebeyo!" She shouted, diving forward and tackling me.

I was too busy laughing to care and we ended up rolling in the dirt until she got a slight opening and rolled me onto my back, with her knees firmly planted on my stomach.

Surprisingly, she didn't feel that heavy as she was on top of me. Her knees were bony and all her weight was pressing on me, but that wasn't even remotely enough to distract me from her staring at me with a sapphire glint burning in her eyes.

Next thing I knew, the sole of a sandal gently tapped against my forehead.

Naruko had managed to get a hold of her sandal that I now just realized was no longer on me, and I could detect a hint of glee in her expression at getting it back from me.

"Teme." She mumbled, before hopping off me and putting her sandal back on. "I'll figure out whether you're ticklish or not too."

I just rolled my eyes, shifting to my left and pushing myself up with my arm to get off the ground.

"I'm unfeeling and as emotionless as a rock, don't you remember?" I asked, drawing a silent glare from her.

"Humph." Naruko elected to cross her arms and not dignify me with an actual response.

It had been a comment made by Gai about how I didn't seem to react to things in the same way as others, specifically injuries or bruising hits. It wasn't my fault that I already was acquainted with injuries in my/the past life experiences ping ponging around in my head.

"Don't be upset about it, Naruko-chan." I smiled, picking my book back up again.

Naruko just stared at me, specifically my face.

"You really need to work on your smile, Sasuke." She said, frowning slightly. "You look like you're crazy or evil."

I just sighed in resignation. She seriously needed to learn how to word things more politely, even if she was correct.

But I was not going to smile and do mannerisms in front of a mirror. I wasn't a deep-voiced Austrian with a single testicle and the product of a potential consanguineous marriage, thank you very much.

Wait, I think mom and dad were fourth cousins. Shit.

"That's because I am, Naruko." I chose to respond with a deadpan reply and not get lost in my thoughts about being a little too close to being a Shonin Habsburg. "I'm evil for torturing you just a moment ago, and crazy because I'm your friend."

Naruko scowled at my statement, standing up and glowering at me.

"No you're not." She said seriously, fixing me with a look that caused an involuntary shudder to creep up my spine.

I don't know what it was, but the way she said it startled me. It was like she had stated a nonnegotiable fact, like how she had blonde hair, or that her eyes were blue.

It also didn't help that my Sharingan was still active.

After a couple seconds of silence, Naruko turned and ran back to the draw, jumping up and flipping midair so her feet stuck to the branch.

"And don't take my shoe again!" She shouted, going back to her chakra control exercise.

Intelligent beyond my years, in possession of metaknowledge that people would kill for, and yet I couldn't decipher what Naruko was thinking at all when she looked at me that way.

All I knew was that I could never come clean about manipulating her for selfish gain for the first year I befriended her now. The shame would kill me.

I continued to fling kunai at her long after I was supposed to have done my own training regimen for the day, lost in thought.

(SCENE BREAK)

"Now I know it may seem like I'm digging for private information," I started off explaining to my fellow classmates at what was now our traditional outing during lunch break, "But this is just so I can paint a clearer picture on what some of you will benefit from."

Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata, Sakura, and Kiba were listening with rapt attention as I started the discussion about the elective classes they'd be taking. Choji was sick with something today, so he was unfortunately absent.

"I'll start first and explain what mine are and for what purpose." I explained clearly, gesturing for Naruko to be ready for her own explanation for her choices. "Genjutsu, tracking, and infiltration were the three I've chosen so far. Genjutsu for obvious reasons, my clan is very adept at Genjutsu. Infiltration is because I can perfectly copy the face and clothing of someone with my Sharingan when I use a Henge, so it will be beneficial to learn the ins and outs earlier. And tracking for a third option that will help me." At the end of my explanation, Naruko cleared her threat and started talking.

"I took Fuinjutsu, tracking, and strategy." She said, looking a little nervous at voicing her reasoning for her choices. "Fuinjutsu is a really cool thing where you can seal huge objects in scrolls. Think of how awesome it is to be able to carry all your gear in a scroll you can put in your pocket!"

By the end of her explanation about Fuinjutsu, she was smiling brightly. I gave her a cursory look, then glanced at the others to gauge whether they were interested.

I noticed that Shikamaru in particular looked extremely interested.

"And tracking is the same reason that Sasuke said, and strategy is so I know how to best use Fuinjutsu traps and other stuff." She didn't mention that the 'other stuff' was her use of Kage bunshin.

Naruko went on for a minute or so longer about how the different electives she took complimented one another. But at the end, Kiba gave her a skeptical look. Nobody else seemed particularly negative, but he did.

"Why's it matter what courses we take? And why does it matter to you what we pick, huh?"

Naruko's cheeks flushed at the notedly rough toned question.

I was ready to tell him to scram if he was going to be an ass about it, but Naruko shot me a warning look before I could say anything. It was as if she could tell I was itching to say something, and the noon light seemed to glint off her eyes as she refused to blink while staring me down.

After just a second or two of silence, I wordlessly relented and let her continue on. But instead of turning to look at our little crowd of underlings, she still kept looking at me.

"Did you want to explain it to Kiba instead, Sasuke?" She asked innocently. "You can if you want to."

I just tilted my head at her confusedly, not knowing why she would say that.

Unless...

It clicked an instant later.

Gone was the innocent and impressionable little girl; gone was the easily manipulated and rash daughter of the deceased Yandaime. Naruko may have had a cheerful and rosy look to her face, enough baby fat in her cheeks still to convey naivety, and the most sparkling blue eyes paired with golden blonde hair, but this 10 year old girl had just accurately predicted my desired reaction towards Kiba and spun it so I would speak without her losing face.

I didn't know whether to feel annoyed at being used as an ice cold tool to send a message to Kiba, or proud that Naruko had the presence of mind to understand that I was capable of being covertly caustic in a way she couldn't, while still making a concise and easily understood message.

I can let her have this little victory, even if it went against everything I was.

"Aye, I do." I went along and nodded. My eyes then darted towards Kiba's. "The simple reason for why Naruko and I, credit goes to her because I honestly don't like being a teacher," I added the last part unnecessarily because I wanted their attention to be more focused on her instead of me, "are talking about electives is because whichever of us are in the same classes can help with anything difficult. For example, you might be more adept at tracking in some ways than me because you're an Inuzuka and I might learn something from watching."

Kiba scowled at me.

"I don't want you stealing any of my clan's Jutsu, Sasuke." He nearly growled, pointing a finger at me with a threatening baring of his teeth.

"He didn't mean it like that, Kiba." Naruko spoke up before I could, her arms crossed tightly. "So stop growling like a dog at him. No offense, Akamaru."

Said ninken just yipped at her while still perched on Kiba's head.

"Moving on," I said, gathering myself once again to keep at my attempt at educating my audience, "We've hardly done any teamwork based training so far. That occurs, hmmm, our final year I think. It's also just very basic stuff, while our Jonin Sensei will do the rest. But I think we can benefit from working on a few things together."

"Hmph," Kiba didn't look convinced, suspicion still noticeably apparent on his face, "Just keep those eyes off my clan's Jutsu."

As if there's anything useful to learn. Was what I wanted to say, because I seriously didn't have time for juvenile suspicion and what was likely an inferiority complex. Kiba was the second best in taijutsu, right behind me, until I started helping Naruko. And I could tell the way he looked at me from time to time that he was jealous that I was much better.

To my relief, even if I would have preferred that it was someone else, Sakura decided to speak up after having looked more and more agitated as Kiba spoke. It was a relief because I didn't want Naruko to give me grief over returning Kiba's attitude with an equally impolite response.

"Um, Sasuke-kun…" Sakura said awkwardly, a faint blush on her face as she looked at me. "So what did you mean by us benefiting from shared classes?"

As I prepared to reply, a thought struck me.

Hmmm, I could work with this. Sakura actually listens to the history lessons.

I could adjust my initial plans and make it even more beneficial.

"I'll get to it in just a second, but I want to know something from all of you. Do all of you remember when Iruka-sensei talked about the Sannin fighting Hanzo the Salamander?"

No one spoke up.

I groaned audibly and pressed my thumb against my forehead, already getting annoyed at being an impromptu teacher. "Sakura, any idea?"

Sakura jerked visibly and blinked a few times, before she nodded her head.

"The Sannin were given their name after the three of them fought against Hanzo in Amegakure around two or three years into the Second Shinobi War. Hanzo gave it to them."

Almost word for word what was in the textbooks.

"All true," I nodded, "But there's a few things you probably aren't aware of, none of you are." My eyes swept across the gathered clan kids. "Hanzo was the one who gave them that name… after slaughtering an entire army of Konoha Shinobi, with only the Sannin surviving. And if I remember correctly, Tsunade-sama was practically carrying Jiraiya-sama at the end so he wouldn't fall into the mud."

"Why is that important though?" Shikamaru asked, looking more attentive than usual. But his boredom was beginning to show. "And how would you know about it, reading ahead?"

"Reading ahead and my parents gave me history lessons about the different Kage level Shinobi Konoha has produced in the last 50 years." I replied simply, before moving on. "But the important detail about the Sannin fighting Hanzo is that they were already S-rank Shinobi, and they became famous for merely not dying when hundreds had already been killed."

I let that settle for a moment so they could absorb that. A quick glance towards Naruko clued me into her looking at me with a serious expression. She was as attentive as everybody else.

Hopefully she'd try and mimic me instead of letting me take charge. She can be the star that they orbit around while I'm the unseen gravity that manipulates the trajectory. Being a leader for them was far from appealing.

"Odds are, maybe one or two of us here aside from me will reach S-rank level, let alone Kage level." At the barely restrained snort from Kiba and the growing suspicion of Shikamaru, I sighed and sat down with my legs crossed.

"I'm just being honest, my father and… Itachi," I felt my skin crawl from how close I was to referring to him as my brother, as if nothing had changed after two entire years, "Were both Kage level, and my cousin Shisui could have been before long. My clan just produces dangerous Shinobi."

Before I could get distracted, I diverted back to the teamwork portion I wanted to get at. So I steeled my mind and ignored the slightly chilly grass under my legs and kept on talking.

"Being the toughest and strongest fighter won't guarantee you living. Sometimes, teamwork makes the difference. Since I don't plan on seeing any of you get killed, including those who aren't a part of this little club," My eyes couldn't help but dart towards where Shino was currently guiding his beetles around in the dirt, then the nameless civilian born students that populated the bottom half of the class, "I want to coordinate our classes in preparation ahead of time."

…

"Well?" I raised a brow at their silence. "Are you interested or not?"

To my surprise and everyone present, Hinata was the first one to speak up.

"Um, I'm interested, Sasuke." She said nervously, her fingers tapping against one another as she blushed slightly as all eyes turned to her.

Like a dam breaking, everyone else gave various sorts of agreement on cooperation after Hinata was the first through breach. Even Kiba did so, albeit reluctantly.

"Good." I said neutrally, turning on my heel and walking towards the tree to lean against. "You can iron out the plans that we talked about last week, Naruko, I'm going to eat now."

An indignant scowl and her muttering my name like it was a swear word was the response I received before I plopped down at the tree and began eating a sandwich I had in a storage scroll, silently watching Naruko work out a semi cohesive plan with the others on her own.

I'd probably end up helping her with the finer details, but that was in the future. Right now, I wanted the perception of me being a reluctant partner to Naruko, and that it was only through her that I could be convinced.

It made her look uniquely charismatic to reach me where no one else could, and it also held her up as a shield against unwanted bellyaches over stupid, childish things.

Yeah, I'm definitely mentally stable. Nothing to be concerned about.

I just smiled contentedly as the cool autumn breeze swept through the yard, while a prophecy touched blonde grew more and more sure of herself with each subtle adjustment from me.

(LINE BREAK)

It was time now.

For months, he had waited, prepared, and now was executing.

The ANBU were too thin to catch him before he was finished, now that many had been deployed to relieve another team that was being harassed all the way back to Konoha. All it took to succeed right now was a well placed kuna-

No. Prolong it. Make her scream.

He would escape with no one noticing, and death wasn't appealing. Getting in and out as fast as possible with little fanfare was vital to his success in killing the demon vessel and getting out.

For his sister and moth-

Father. His father.

"Ugh, stupid mosquito." He muttered, scratching at the itch on the back of his neck. How one of those bloodsuckers lived until the end of October, he'd probably never know. And that pesky tag got in the way, but he wasn't going to tear it off like an idiot.

Adjusting his mask slightly and checking his ANBU armour, the elite Shinobi emerged from the alleyway and went towards the specific apartment complex that housed the village Jinchuriki.

He'd see his wife and daughter again soon.

(LINE BREAK)

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Naruko groaned as she heard the knock at her door. It was late at night and she was just about finished organizing the first round of group notes for the others in her year at the academy who were taking the strategy elective with her. It was thanks to Sasuke freely gifting her notes made by both his mom and a great uncle of his that they'd kept from their academy days.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Just a second!" She called out, putting up the organized papers in a box and setting it on her little tea table that was acting as a nightstand for now.

With that done, she hopped up to her feet and exited her bedroom to get to the door. Just a moment later, she opened the door and her eyes widened slightly.

"Oh, why are you here this late?" She asked, looking at who was standing in her doorway.

Sasuke was shifting his feet, looking uncomfortable and his hands were flexing repeatedly.

He looked anxious, unbelievably so.

"Uh, can I come in?" He asked, still shifting his posture in discomfort.

That struck her as odd. Sasuke hadn't been this bothered about something in months. Even what happened on her birthday didn't match this.

"Are you okay, Sasuk-" She began to ask, but a barely prompted memory resurfaced from almost a year ago, a memory of a warning.

Don't take anything at face value. The Henge is enough to fool most if you aren't aware. Ask a question only the real person would know.

"Did you break your uncle's erhu string again?" Naruko asked with a forced roll of her eyes, silently cursing that she didn't have a kunai up her sleeve.

She didn't show it, but she was terrified now. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and long subdued and faded memories rose to the surface of her mind that what looked like Sasuke might not be Sasuke.

'Sasuke' frowned for a moment, his posture stilling for a second.

"No, this is about something else. Naruko, I think you're in dange-"

Naruko didn't wait for the imposter to say anything else. With as much force as she could muster, she stepped forward and kicked him between his legs.

The Henge broke in a puff of smoke and revealed a masked man in armour, who staggered forward and almost retched in pain.

The blonde girl struck out with a punch aimed at his temple to hopefully knock him out. The man lifted up the arm that wasn't cupping his genitals, but it was half hazardly and her fist still smashed into his head.

The hit sent him sprawling to the ground, giving her a brief opening.

Naruko darted forward to get out of her apartment and find help, her heart hammering in her chest.

Just as she got through the doorway, her leg collapsed out from under her as something hard struck her calf and sent her stumbling and falling towards the stairs.

A brief scream escaped her before she tumbled down the stairs, everything blurring into a mass of noise from hitting the wooden stairs and pain.

She hit the bottom of the stairs and her head struck the wall hard enough to break the drywall, before she slumped to the ground bonelessly.

Naruko groaned weakly, her vision blurry as she felt something warm trickle down the side of her face.

A shadow fell over her and she looked up, her eyes widening in terror. It was the imposter, and his posture was coiled like a spring, just like when Gai was ready to strike.

She was backed up against the wall, her head hurt, and she saw no way out. She'd never been attacked by a Shinobi before, only civilians, and never at her home.

"Please," She said fearfully, curling up into a ball in preparation for another beating, "Please don't."

Naruko had never done anything wrong. Why did they hate her?

"You shouldn't have tried to run." He said quietly, his eyes fixed on her from behind his mask.

Without saying another word, he lunged forward.

(LINE BREAK)

I growled under my breath as I closed the Fuinjutsu book tightly and stood up from the chair, stretching my arms out and rolling my shoulders.

Two hours of memorizing the basic rules of combat Fuinjutsu, and I was still left with next to no understanding of how to do it.

A hundred different rules that were subjective based on your chakra affinity, gender, and a list of other things that could modify how a Shinobi would craft a seal.

I hope Naruko took to it better than me, because I was not going to learn seal shit if it was this difficult. Iryo-ninjutsu and Ninjutsu were easy thanks to my Sharingan, but Fuinjutsu was a completely different animal when it wasn't basic storage scrolls.

Shaking my head and blinking a few times to relieve the itching from using my dojutsu for the last hour, I padded over to my kitchen and opened up the fridge to grab some milk. I pulled the carton out, turned around, and flipped the stove on.

A small, steel pot got set on the burner and I poured in some milk, then waited for it to heat up.

My mom used to make some warm milk for me with a touch of cinnamon in it whenever I wasn't in the best of moods, and I wanted the comfort drink right now after a long day of continuing my plans for a loyal little group of future clan heads to stave off any pushback when I went a little savage.

Since I wasn't joining the snake, I needed to have as many friends as possible, and networking via helping them was the best idea. Plus, there might be something one or two of them stumbles across that will help me.

Even if I was using Naruko to get that done, it wasn't purely selfish.

I get stronger, more allies through Naruko, and they get stronger and more prepared too.

It's a win win.

Oh who am I kidding. I'm becoming a bleeding heart because of Naruko. Me being a manipulative and evil little troll was fun until she came along.

Just as the milk started to bubble and I reached my hand out to grip the panhandle, I heard a knock on my door.

Naruko didn't announce that it was her, and Kakashi wouldn't bother me upon returning at 11 at night.

Not a word being said.

Thinking fast, I prepared myself for a fight and I reached up to grab a glass in my cabinet. Improvising was the way to go with this, and I was ready.

"Who is it?!" I called out, intentionally dropping the glass and clasping my hands together to form a cross seal as the glass struck the ground.

The shattering sound of the glass concealed the puff sound of two clones forming, one of which immediately grabbed a cutting knife from the block, then I let out a few choice swear words and took the pan of hot milk off the stove and walked to the doorway with my clones flanking me.

"Just a second!" The clone just behind me said loudly, still audibly grumbling like I was still in the kitchen.

I nodded at the one clone with the knife, who stood in front of the door while I walked up the wall and was upside down on the ceiling, with the hot milk pot still in my hand - tilted so it wouldn't spill.

The other got to the end of the hallway and took cover behind the recliner, crouched out of sight.

With a quick nod as the signal, my clone opened the door to reveal who had knocked.

"What do you nee-" My clone began to ask, but a cold and unfamiliar voice interrupted.

"There is no time. The Uzumaki girl is being attacked at her home. Hurry!" The man then disappeared with a pop and a puff of smoke.

Naruko. Attacked.

The pot slipped from my hands and fell with a clatter, steaming hot milk spilling across my floor in all directions. For a fraction of a moment, the barest of instances, the entire house was as silent as it was when I walked in on Itachi standing above my mom and dad's bodies, and the phantom memory of the scent of blood hit me like a knife to my gut.

'Tachi, why!'

Blood rushed to my face and I dropped down, acting on a feral instinct I had never felt before as I lunged at my almost catatonic looking clone.

The knife in my clone's hand was wrenched free and I slashed its arm to pop it, before I whirled around and tore through hand seals.

" Fucking pop!" I snarled at the other, ignoring the influx of memory from my clone I just killed.

My chakra responded to my will and the shaping of it with my hands and I was sent flying forward and down the street of the Uchiha clan district.

The icy cold air burned my lungs and cut into my nerves all across my face and arms, but I couldn't be stopped. Street after street blurred into a kaleidoscope of near blinding images that I could still see all of in spite of my frantic race against time.

I pivoted on my leg and ignored the burning sensation in my knee and ankle as I reached an intersection and blurred down the street, before leaping up the wall of a small store and climbing up as fast as I could, ignoring the worn brick biting into my hands.

At some point, my Sharingan must have activated without me realizing it, because I could see the faint haze of chakra that wafted around lazily from the thousands of Shinobi populating such a small geographic location.

Just another mile or two away.

Going through the same seals again after mapping a route with the help of my eyes, I shot forward at full speed and jumped off the roof to the opposite of two whole streets.

Physics had never been my strongest suit. I wasn't stupid, but the nitty gritty of calculating velocity and distance wasn't exactly interesting to me.

Because of that, nobody was more surprised than me when a 10 year old kid, weighing 80 pounds in a rainstorm, got sent flying as my Shunshin propelled me off the roof at superhuman velocities.

Everything seemed to go silent for a second. My bare feet weren't slamming into the ground, so it was only the rush of wind and the loud thumping of my heart in my chest that I could hear. It was almost calming, with the village of Konoha below me as I looked at it from a great height.

And it was at that moment that I discovered that heights scared me.

"Aaagghhhhhh!" A scream was all I could let out as the unforgiving detail of the stoney ground and buildings beckoned my inevitable arrival.

Stupid. Reckless. Impulsive.

'Foolish little brother.'

I was airborne for about five or six seconds, and there was nowhere I could see where to lan-

At the last second, by dumb luck, I streaked past a building in my dissension within arm's reach before I could smash into the ground and I reached my arms out, sinking my fingers into the brick and mortar with everything I had.

My strength enhancement prevented my fingers from being torn to shreds all the way to the bone, and I did succeed in not turning into a deer smear on the street, but the force wrenched my right arm out of socket and I still hit the ground hard.

I let out a whimper as I felt all the littles aches and pains, not to mention my now dislocated shoulder.

The ground was cold, and I could taste blood in my mouth from impacting hard. And I struggled to catch my breath after getting it knocked from me.

Focus. I thought, gritting my teeth as I forced myself to my feet with my one good arm.

Surprisingly, the kitchen knife was just a couple feet from me. But I needed to relocate my shoulder joint. So focusing on how I remembered doing it before, at least from the old memories, I gripped my upper arm and jerked the joint back in place with some assistance with chakra enhancement.

I almost vomited as a wave of pain washed over me, stars appearing in my vision.

My feet almost slipped as I staggered to grab the knife, gripping it as tightly as I could.

I was still alive, so I Shunshined for the third time and managed to jump over the front steps of Naruko's apartment complex, my fists smashing into the door as I landed to knock it off its hinges. The door exploded into a dozen chunks of wood, but I paid no mind to it. I just sprinted up to her floor.

My Sharingan took in every detail as I rounded the corner of the steps, a dent in the wall and blood on the floor and steps making my blood freeze.

Then the scream registered.

"Naruko!" I ran up the stairs and rushed into her apartment. What I saw was the worst sight I had ever seen in my life since I had the unwanted memories of a dead man burned into my mind.

Most of the furniture was trashed, slash marks through a few, blood was everywhere, and a man was standing over Naruko and kicking her in the head.

"Fucking!" *Kick* "Bitch!" *Kick*.

Her screaming was the most horrifying sound imaginable, even as she tried to get out of reach.

That same animal instinct that possessed me to murder my own clone had me blanking out and I rushed forward, jamming the kitchen knife straight into his exposed back every ounce of strength I could muster.

The knife bit into the armour that covered his back and redirected it somewhat, but I still felt it cut through and it scraped across his rib on his left side.

A shout of surprise and pain came from him and he turned around, lashing out with a blind and rough kick towards my chest.

My arm shot up and I cushioned the hit, feeling my elbow and shoulder jolt as I distributed the force between my arm and chest.

Before I fell back from the impact, I gripped as hard as I could and dragged my fingers across his leg. My enhanced strength ended up tearing five finger wide grooves into his calf and his sandal was torn free from his foot before I fell to the ground.

This time, he was the one that screamed and he staggered away from Naruko to focus on me.

I flipped myself to my feet and I rushed at him, screaming bloody murder as I tried to kill him.

My first attack was a kick aimed at his knee, which he knocked aside with his arm. A quick stream of chakra enhanced jabs were also blocked, but my precise vision showed his weakness to it. His arms tucked in after the third, and they hurt him.

The surprise of my sudden arrival wore off quickly and the rest of my aggressive attacks were avoided by him or pushed aside, a growl escaping me as he gripped my wrist after catching a punch and shoving me aside.

He almost immediately countered with a speed I couldn't keep up with. One punch was aimed at my face, seamlessly being followed by another that I barely ducked under. My kick to his ribs got smacked aside and his fist crashed into my face, making me stagger and his injured leg slammed into my sternum and sent me crashing into the remnants of the couch.

This was like Gai going at his pace reserved for when Naruko and I both fought him. I had no chance of killing him alone.

Naruko hadn't gotten up throughout all of this, and she hadn't spoken or made a sound.

There was a short opening, and I took it.

"Naruko?" I asked fearfully, terrified that she wouldn't respond.

Speak. Not you too. Not again. Not again.

I couldn't lose her, not after everything. She was the only thing Itachi hadn't taken from me yet. He can't have her. No one can have her.

A weak gasp and her trying to sit up from her kitchen floor provided the greatest relief I ever felt, and I tunnel visioned on how this goddamn animal turned to look at her for a moment.

Her hair was caked to her face from blood, and it was more red than blonde. I couldn't tell whether her nose was broken or the extent of her injuries because there was too much blood, and her nightshirt was torn and also covered in her blood, and one of her eyes was completely swollen shut.

"Sasuke." She gasped, desperately trying to get up but slipping in what I helplessly prayed wasn't a puddle of her blood.

It was too much blood. It looked like mom's, shiny and thick on the floo-

He was going to die. I was going to rip him apart, piece by piece. Not even Naruko could stop me.

I let out the most vicious and loud war cry and ran at him, staring directly into his eyes as he turned back to face me.

The most rudimentary and basic ocular Genjutsu I could manage settled on him and he froze, his hands just a hair too low to block my attack. It didn't matter to me that his reaction was odd, just that there was an opening and I smelled blood in the water.

I leapt up to eye level and my fist, enhanced by the life energy coursing like liquid fire within me, drove into his face and sent him sprawling to the ground in a shower of blood and teeth fragments.

Before his head even hit the ground, I jumped on him and started raining down punches on him, screaming the whole time as I did it.

I didn't check on Naruko. I didn't try to get her out of the apartment. I just kept beating to death the man that tried to kill the single most important person in my life.

My screaming and the wet crunch of my fists striking his head was all I could hear, and I could barely make sense of anything as I kept beating him.

"Die!" I screamed hysterically, repeating it over and over again as he flailed weakly to try and push me off him, but I was beyond him. His life was mine.

Finally, after dozens of punches and my Sharingan deactivating from my dangerously low reserves, his head exploded under the force of my last hit and I caught a glimpse of a flash, before my entire upper body was engulfed in pain; the absolute worst was centered directly in my arm and face, and I screamed before the inky blackness of unconsciousness consumed me.

(LINE BREAK)

The blast that came from Sasuke and the man who attacked her pushed her into the side of her fridge, jolting her entire body and her already ringing head.

The beating had only lasted a minute or so, and she put up a good fight. She even jammed a piece of a broken chair leg into his thigh that caused a bunch of blood to spill out.

And then Sasuke appeared like a guardian angel.

That thought caused everything to snap back into focus, the ringing in her ears and burning pain in her face fading into the background.

"Sasuke!" Naruko screamed, crawling towards her unconscious and bleeding friend. "It's okay. It's okay." She mumbled, her breaths coming in loud sobs as she got to him.

Sasuke was a mess. Her attacker's head and upper chest were completely gone, his arms flung in opposite directions, and there were shards of bone and teeth visible in the blood spatter from the explosion.

And several of those bone shards were embedded in Sasuke's arm, and a massive chunk of bone was sticking out of the right side of his face.

"Sasuke, wake up." She begged, trying to shake him awake. "Sasuke!"

Naruko started crying, trying to shake her friend awake as blood kept pouring from his arm and his brow where the bone shard was.

She didn't know how to stop the bleeding. Sasuke was going to die because of her.

That was how the two were found just moments later by four off duty Shinobi in the neighborhood that heard the explosion.

The four adults, veterans of war and perpetrators of assassinations, were met by the sight of what looked like a scene from a horror movie. Blood and entrails flung all across the room, with a blood soaked and sobbing girl clutching the unconscious form of her closest friend.

"Stay away!" She screamed as she saw them, trying to shield Sasuke as best as she could. "I'll kill you if you touch him!"

Every inch of her body burned and she felt feverish, the fog over her thoughts after she got kicked in the face repeatedly starting to vanish now.

"We need to get him stabilized and both to the hospital," The oldest of them, a man in his 40s said, "Genjutsu, Kohei."

Before Naruko could launch herself at them to protect Sasuke, her vision went completely black and she felt like a puppet with her strings cut, before passing out.

Naruko and the unconscious Sasuke were carried out of the trashed apartment and rushed to the hospital, with the broken corpse of the attacker left to cool where it lay.

(LINE BREAK)

Hiruzen gazed down at the heavily bandaged form of Uchiha Sasuke in the hospital bed, with Naruko curled up next to him.

It was nearly 4 in the morning and the attack had just happened hours ago, and it could not have happened at a worse time.

Every ANBU still in the village had been hauled in for precautionary measures, with Inoichi checking for any subversion or infiltrators.

"What are the damages?" He asked the chief Iryo-nin that had been in charge of stabilizing Sasuke calmly, not betraying the turbulent nature of his thoughts.

The air stank of blood, strong like the battlefields he had been on in years past. And it was coming directly from the bed in front of him.

"The Jinchur- the girl," The doctor corrected himself, adjusting his glasses as he looked at the leader of the village, "Has the least extensive injuries. She was fully conscious after the Genjutsu put on her by one of the Shinobi that found her wore off. Most of the injuries were bone fractures or facial injuries; a few ribs, her left ankle, and a cracked orbital socket. Her face was the most serious, and I had to reset her nose because it healed on its own incorrectly." The last part was added with a grimace.

Each injury stated felt like an icy kunai being jammed into his gut, and Hiruzen took a few short breaths to center himself as he looked down at the sleeping blonde.

Her hair wasn't supposed to be strawberry blonde looking.

"Why isn't she in her own bed?" He asked, having already noticed that but refrained from voicing it aloud at first.

"She threatened to stab anybody who tried to move her, and it took everything we had to convince her to put on a clean set of clothing and wash her face."

It obviously wasn't enough. Her hair still had blood staining it, there were still specks of dried blood all over her and the bedsheet.

"How soon will she recover from her injuries?" Hiruzen inquired, a faint and familiar signature brushing against his senses from around a few hundred yards away.

Kakashi had returned.

"I could discharge her tomorrow evening at the rate that her injuries are healing; a side effect of her… condition, I'd wager."

Hiruzen nodded a confirmation, at least a small degree of relief washing over him.

Physically, Naruko would be fine. But her emotional state was what frightened him the most, especially with how bloody the scene was. The Inuzuka couldn't smell where the infiltrator's blood stopped and where Naruko's began, and her front room and kitchen were ripped to shreds.

"What of Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked, using his actual name instead of his clan name. The little boy that Hiruzen remembered smiling at when he had been born, and when Fugaku and Mikoto had requested permission to name their boy after his own father.

The dread he felt when he saw the doctor's face fall was indescribable.

"He's fortunate that he didn't lose his arm at the elbow or have his jugular severed," The doctor said grimly, gesturing at the bandaged and stabilized limb, "Either an exploding tag went off or another technique replicated a similar result and blasted shards of bone into him."

A quick investigation on his part via a clone confirmed that it was an exploding tag. Hiruzen was, admittedly, highly familiar with the blast pattern of an exploding tag when attached to a human being's head, and the amount of depth the blast tore into the chest cavity and arms was roughly the same as a standard tag used all the way from Chunin to S-rank army killers.

"It was almost certainly a tag." Hiruzen stated, which the doctor hummed in response to.

"Then the intact state of his arm is miraculous." The aged physician said quietly, "The skin was nearly scorched and much of the flesh across his fingers and wrist were nearly destroyed, but I was able to successfully save the hand and repair the spiral fracture that reached all the way to his elbow. I don't know the long term yet, but I'm optimistic."

That addressed one concern, but another even more apparent one was staring him in the eye as Hiruzen stared at Sasuke's face.

"What happened to his face?"

(LINE BREAK)

Kabuto cursed as he pondered the information he had been made privy to in the last hour. It was a total catastrophe of proportions that he couldn't easily come to terms with.

The Uzumaki Jinchuriki being attacked, and Uchiha Sasuke was horrifically injured in the process of saving her. But of his injuries, one stood out; one that he himself double-checked by running a quick diagnostic on Sasuke when Hatake, the only one other than the Hokage who could very likely spot him, left the room to be guarded by a wet behind the ears pair of ANBU that were easily distracted from their lack of sleep ever since they aided Hatake's team in getting back to Konoha.

Sasuke's right eye was unsalvageable.

A chunk of skull stabbed into his face and buried itself in his orbital socket, biting into even bone. Shards had splintered off and had torn the top of the crystalline lens away, another had partially detached the retina, and the optic nerve was ruptured.

Any one of those could have been treated, if not made whole again, and perhaps two if Sasuke wasn't an Uchiha with a slightly different internal eye structure.

But three compromised parts of his eye meant Sasuke would be completely blind in that eye, permanently hampering him for life. An Uchiha eye could be transplanted into a non-Uchiha with some difficulty, but the inverse was immensely difficult.

It wasn't the most common knowledge, but most Uchiha had an extreme intolerance of blood transfusions from unrelated donors. That included organ transplants as well.

Sasuke couldn't even hope for a donor eye to restore his depth perception without organ rejection, so all the effort to make Sasuke a magnificent prospect could be completely burned.

Which was why Kabuto was setting up his plan to get to Orochimaru-sama and ask for further instructions. A potential vessel being damaged in such a way would displease his master, but it was of utmost importance that he deliver the news.

It also didn't help that Kabuto had a small affection for the kid. He was bright and ever curious, not to mention driven and ambitious.

Such a bloody waste that he lost an eye, maybe Orochimaru-sama could find a way to repair the damage one day.

Hmmm, perhaps using that as leverage may ingratiate Sasuke to him.

No matter, all Kabuto could do was do his duty and deliver information.

(LINE BREAK)

Shimura Danzo was many things in his over 50 year career as a Shinobi in the armies of Konoha. He had trained under Senju Tobirama and served on the front in the First Shinobi War, acted as the direct commander of the ghost division eventually known as ROOT in the Second, and had led them in the Third to a long defeat only arrested by the shattering of Iwa's armies by the Yellow Flash.

But there was so much more that he had seen; had done. Many of those would be unknown, forever lost to oblivion when he shed his mortal coil in the coming years.

And this was one of them.

Making his way through the sewer system to reduce his chance of being spotted while closing the distance to the hospital, Danzo kept the camouflage Jutsu in place that made him nearly invisible and walked on the water briskly. It was a silent walk, and an uneventful one as he reached the manhole opposite of the street the hospital was on.

Danzo, intimately acquainted with infiltration, made no sound as he lifted the metal with his replacement arm and stuck it to his fingers, before climbing up and out of the tunnel.

He gently set down the manhole cover and closed the distance to the hospital entrance, his teeth clenching slightly as his old leg injury flared painfully.

His cane wasn't a complete show in being necessary, and it was made quite apparent by his movements.

Danzo successfully got into the hospital, slipped the first ANBU patrol in the hallway with no difficulty, then uncovered his eye patch once he knew that two ANBU were in the Rain position guarding the Uchiha.

It was disgustingly simple to Henge as a doctor and drop a pair of glasses and curse audibly to draw the attention of one, then the other when Danzo hit him with an ocular Genjutsu from under his concealment and did it again when the second peaked around the corner to call for his partner.

With both in a Genjutsu induced haze, Danzo was in the clear as they slumped down to the floor.

I must make a note at some point for Hiruzen to continue training drills for the ANBU.

Such middling quality in ANBU was an insult to Konoha. A physically disabled veteran nearing 70 years of age had waltzed straight through their defenses and got in with no difficulty.

Was it a surprise that the Jinchuriki was assaulted once again?

Slipping into the hospital room, Danzo glanced down at the bed and raised a brow at the Jinchuriki laying right next to the Uchiha. She obviously snuck in to stay by his side.

Something to consider.

Danzo formed a half seal with his hand and Henged as Hiruzen, then leaned forward.

"Naruko," He whispered, tapping her shoulder with his index, "You must wake up."

"No' leaving." She mumbled sleepily, shifting around in the bed.

The leader of ROOT just silently scowled. He had no time for this.

"Naruko." He jabbed her a little harder this time.

"Okay, Jiji!" She opened her eyes and stared up at him angrily. "What?"

With his Sharingan implant active and open, Danzo struck her with a concentrated Genjutsu.

The girl's eyes dilated completely, before slumping and falling forward bonelessly. Before she could fall out of the bed though, Danzo caught her and laid her gently against the guard rail of the hospital bed and facing away from Sasuke.

"Such an annoyance." He muttered, grabbing the chair to his left and setting it right next to Sasuke and he sat down to get a closer look at the unconscious boy.

Before he got started, he made a single clone and made it Henge to look like one of the guards and ordered it to stand by the door to prevent any nurse or orderly from entering.

With his back covered, Danzo silently went through three hand seals and activated the diagnostic medical Jutsu, and brushed against Sasuke's temple and side of his face with a practiced hand.

For a solid minute and a half, he guided his chakra through the bone, flesh, and nerves in the area to paint an accurate picture of what he was dealing with.

His concerns were confirmed when his chakra refused to move beyond a certain point in Sasuke's optic nerve where chakra was supposed to conduct from the eye, through the optic nerve, and into the brain.

He also noted that there were repaired sections of the eye and the beginnings of scar tissue building up. Bone fragments removed, perhaps?

Best to make it quick.

Slowly, Danzo pulled his hand away and pressed his other to the boy's face, gently opening his eye to get a visual look.

The eye was completely blood red, not a single speck of white or the black iris visible from the massive amount of blood that had filled the eye itself.

It merely confirmed the unsalvageable nature of it.

"What a waste." He murmured, his right hand pulling back and twisting into multiple half seals.

A thin blade of chakra replaced the greenish glow of the diagnostic Jutsu and with a precision obtained by decades of experience as a Shinobi and combat medic, Danzo sank his fingers into Uchiha Sasuke's eye socket.

Despite being heavily sedated, the boy's body predictably spasmed from the procedure, but Danzo held firm.

It took only a few seconds for him to cleanly remove the damaged eye, which was placed into a sealed container of preservatives to be put in his storage for future study.

With that done, he quickly stemmed the flow of blood from the boy's face and pulled out another container, this one holding an intact Sharingan.

Itachi may have threatened him to never harm his brother, and he surely wasn't going to. If the Uchiha had wanted to ensure his precious little brother never came to harm, he should have taken him from the village.

But he didn't, and Danzo was left to fix an avoidable catastrophe and hopefully spin the situation to his advantage.

The replacement eye was carefully removed from the container and the impromptu surgery continued.

It took far longer to attach a new eye than it was to remove one, and he could feel the strain in his leg from staying in one position for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, after nearly an hour of work, he was finished. The eye was completely functional, with all pathways connected and the nerve attached to a near perfect level.

Plus, the boy had the benefit of three tomoe in his right eye now. A fitting reward for service rendered in the defense of Konoha's Jinchuriki.

Speaking of that, Danzo got up from the chair and limped towards the opposite of the bed to reach the girl. He tilted her head up and forced an eye open, his Sharingan boring into the cerulean blue of the young girl.

Kotoamatsukami.

He saw as the chakra settled on the girl, her own chaotic chakra snapping and twisting across her skin.

Then, it simply died down and she remained as limp as before.

He took no pleasure in it. Willing to kill any and all that were a threat to his village, as well as do anything to fulfill his duty, but Shimura Danzo was no savage. Thousands had died from his actions, but he felt no joy or guilt from it.

It was merely the ruthless calculus of war.

With the false experience of falling asleep on the job planted in the minds of the ANBU, Danzo had his clone sit them on a pair of chairs and he exited the hospital with no one the wiser of his presence.

(END CHAPTER)

So Sasuke got bailed out by Danzo of all people, with no clear cut motive from the resident cripple aside from it being a waste that Sasuke lost an eye.

Next chapter will be the fallout of a successful attack on the village Jinchuriki, and the single loyal Uchiha being terribly injured. Heads will definitely roll.

So I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next episode of Indelible. Peace!

Raging.