Chapter 15

A mild trigger warning for this chapter. Shisui's death and the events around the massacre are discussed in mild detail, so read at your own risk. ~ LeViAcKeRmAnN

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After her brutal fight with Gai, mostly brutal on her chakra stores and stamina, although she would probably have bruises for weeks, she went home to shower quickly, then headed through the village.

She grabbed a couple oranges from a seller, passing him the coins with an easy smile, sealing away two of the three she'd bought. She started peeling the third absently, dropping the peels in random trashcans she passed.

It was fully peeled by the time she reached the Naka river, where the crows usually hung out.

"Hey guys," she announced her presence with a soft call.

Cue enthusiastic cawing from the crows, who started landing on her shoulders and head to try and get at the orange, which she hid in her pocket.

"Off," she told them sternly. "You can't have it if you're sitting on my head."

They were reluctant, but the promise of orange pieces dragged them off her head and back to the ground in front of her.

She pulled the orange out again and they went wild, hopping and flying around in circles, trying to catch her attention.

She laughed, pulling off a small piece of the orange and throwing it up into the air. Three different ones dove at it, only one got it.

"Take turns," she admonished them, tossing another piece. The crows immediately lined up in an impressively straight line to beg for a piece of orange. She laughed, and started handing out orange. They were smart creatures, although sometimes she worried they were just a little bit too smart.

She was fairly sure they were summons, she'd seen a couple disappear in puffs of smoke then reappear later, which meant they were probably an active summoning contract, but she didn't know why they resided here. From what she remembered, summons generally had their own place in the summoning realm.

Once she'd managed to feed them all a bit of orange, one of the first she'd fed that had flown off, came back. Clutched in its talons was a scroll.

It wasn't the first time they'd brought stuff for her to have, nor would it probably be the last, they had a tendency to try and give equal to what she gave them. Generally it was random weapons, various old kunai and senbon and shuriken, once they even brought back an entire tanto that she actually still had, along with its shoulder holster. It'd been in fairly good condition, only needing some minor sharpening and getting rid of a tiny bit of rust along with cleaning up the holster.

It dropped the scroll in her outstretched hand, and another crow dropped a second one in her hand a moment later. A third landed on her shoulder.

"Which do I read first?" She asked, inspecting both. One was a simple scroll, engraved on the ends with crows and tied with a simple red ribbon. The other was sealed with wax, a sharingan pattern pressed into it. That, along with the Uchiha symbol carved into the ends of the scroll meant it was a fairly old scroll. There simply weren't scrolls like that around any more. Not since the massacre.

The crow on her shoulder hopped down her arm and nudged the first one that had been dropped off before moving back to her shoulder. So she tucked the second scroll into her pocket to hold it, and carefully broke the wax seal.

She gently opened the scroll, mindful of any damage it might have collected in the time the crows had it. It was surprisingly pretty much entirely intact, the only signs of wear and tear being some blood stains she doubted came from crows.

To anyone who is reading this:

I can only imagine who you might be, but if you are reading this, you have been vetted by the crows and they have deemed you a worthy holder of their contract. I am Itachi Uchiha, and one of the last three Uchiha alive and I am the second holder of the crow contract. The first was my cousin Shisui Uchiha. Enclosed within is his bingo book page, one he himself edited out of sheer annoyance.

Tenten unrolled it further and found the page. Amusingly, several things had been crossed out and fixed, mostly with larger numbers. A few things had also been added at the bottom, including an affinity for genjutsu, something about a fancy Sharingan, and strangely enough, a comment about perfect eyeliner. She decided not to question it too much. He was a jounin. Jounin were always a bit strange.

He was pretty good-looking, but he was an Uchiha, they were pretty much infamous for being unfairly pretty and Shisui was no exception.

Wait, that holster. She recognized it. It looked like the one the crows had brought her a while ago. Had it been his?

If the crows did their job correctly, you will have received a tanto and holster. It belonged to Shisui, and I preserved it with the intention of passing it on alongside the contract. He wouldn't have wanted it burned or buried with him, preferring to have it protect someone else when he wasn't able to with his death.

[ If the Uchiha massacre is still recent, do not look into it until you know the risks. Powerful people were involved in it, it wasn't just me snapping and killing everyone besides my younger brother. People more powerful than me pulled the strings of a sixteen-year-old boy and forced him into a position where his only option was suicide, and pulled the strings of a thirteen-year-old boy and forced him into a position where it was kill or have a civil war.

I cannot explain here, couldn't even begin to cover the tragedy of the Uchiha massacre, but I can offer this. Should I still be alive, send the crows with a message and I will offer the information in person. If I am not, I will have set up a trail of clues and leads to ensure the information does not die with me. In either event, I wish you luck, and give you the crow summoning contract. Sign your name in your own blood, then put a bloody handprint of your dominant hand at the bottom. The crows will come when summoned. They are well trained, and can write and read Japanese, as well as understand Konoha civilian, shinobi, and ANBU sign language.

I wish you luck,

Itachi Uchiha ]

Tenten needed to sit down. That was a lot.

She plopped down on the ground, startling the crows around her a little bit, but they soon settled back down.

That was a lot. A lot to take in. What risks was Itachi talking about? And why did he seem to separate looking into the massacre from asking him for information. And was she seriously considering actually asking Itachi Uchiha, the famed perpetrator of the Uchiha fricking massacre for information about this?

Although most of what was in the letter was extremely concerning. She hadn't known Itachi was what, thirteen when the massacre happened? He had been what was her age now, and forced into that from what had been said.

One of the crows pulled the other scroll out of her pocket and dropped it in front of her insistently. They wanted her to sign it. It seemed like the contract held a lot of weight, she couldn't decide whether to be honored she was picked, or concerned about shouldering it. She picked honored for now.

She carefully untied the ribbon, then opened the scroll. It was small, four boxes there. She suspected it'd expand later, or would be expanded somehow.

The first signature was Shisui Uchiha, and a small handprint. It must have been signed when he was young. The second was Itachi Uchiha, and had similarly small handprint, although slightly larger than the first.

She bit her thumb and forefinger, writing her name, Tenten, then smearing blood across her hand and making a handprint. It was larger than the other two and she couldn't help but feel a bit sad. It didn't sound like either Uchiha had a childhood at all, if being jounin at sixteen and thirteen respectively said anything.

The crows squawked and flapped their wings around her, and she just stared at the scroll. They celebrated a new summoner, and Tenten ever so carefully tied up both scrolls, storing them away in a seal she carefully visualized into being over her heart. Storage seals were easy. She could do them without difficulty.

"I'll see you guys later," she said to the crows. "I need to get into town. It's getting late and I'm tired."

They crowed at her in farewell and she left, looking no different than when she'd entered the area, the new seal hidden by her shirt, everything she'd learned tucked away safely in her head. Perhaps she'd ask Kakashi or Gai tomorrow if they knew anything about Itachi and Shisui. It couldn't hurt to ask.

She reached her apartment, and found nothing in the fridge. Going out it was then. She didn't have the energy to cook tonight. Not tonight. Not after the spar with Gai and the whole mess with the crows.

She did put up a reminder to go grocery shopping though. She'd need to tomorrow. Perhaps she'd take out the tanto and resize the holster enough to fit her so she could wear it around. She didn't generally wear weapons, but she might as well with that one. Maybe if she couldn't sleep or woke up from a nightmare again.

Her nightmares ended up filled to the brim with crows and rivers of blood, corpses piled high, and Itachi standing in the middle of it all, staring at her almost menacingly.