The four followed the trails and continued until they reached a small stream and picked up a rubble.

*Drrrr*

'Motherfucker... that's a seal matrix for hidden entrances and that, too, with a key system for civilians!' Kai almost grumbled but held his silence.

As they entered, the entrance closed behind them and Mikoto felt impatient to help as the various scenarios in her mind made her breath hitch somewhat.

"Genin Mikoto," Tsunade stated sternly, "Don't forget that we have to scout the area and cover their exit routes, or else this whole mission will be a failure."

She then looked at Kai, "Give the perimeters a glance, and Kushina, you will undo the seal at the entrance. Mikoto, take the high point of view and keep a lookout." With that, Tsunade walked beside Kushina who quickly poofed out her supplies and began unsealing the entrance and as Kai flickered away, Mikoto did, too, albeit reluctantly.

Kai found a hidden exit soon enough. But while Kushina could unseal relatively quickly, strengthening the seal so that a mere trigger doesn't allow their target to leave is much harder. Making sure of his surroundings, Kai crouched down and placed his hand on the seal before mumbling, "Let's see... spreading chakra..."

From the point of contact over the large boulder, pitch-black squiggly seal marks began to spread out like a spider web. And this was his speed after a 100℅ increase in the speed with which he could form chakra seals. Heck, he was sure that the chakra matrix system should be a C-rank level of fuinjutsu and that's why it made other skills from the clan skill tree obsolete.

"Huff... took 1300 points of chakra..." Kai shook his head. As broken as seals are, forming seals itself is very taxing even if only ink and brush are used. The seal mark disappeared into the boulder and Kai mused that the trigger hidden entrance and exit were of lower quality than the trigger explosive scroll and wasn't an Uzumaki work this time around.

He soon returned to the entrance where Mikoto was already waiting as he reported, "I found a hidden exit with the trigger and over imposed another seal to block the effects of the trigger. Exit point, secured."

Tsunade nodded and looked at Kushina, "Let's enter. We will act accordingly once we see the situation itself."

The earthen wall parted once Kushina slapped the dried ink and fuelled it with a great amount of chakra. The four of them walked down the stairs cautiously as torches were placed to light up the area making it hard for the four to hide themselves efficiently.

"p-please... n-not..."

Soft gasps, passing hollers, and many other indications made Mikoto's skin crawl as her grip on her kunai tightened while Kushina silently unsheathed the chokuto on her back with a stormy expression. Even Kai held four venomous senbon needles in between his curled fingers.

They soon reached the last of the stairs and Tsunade vanished before reappearing the next instant with a cold expression and dropping two men down the stairs. Dead.

"They are all alive," Tsunade whispered and looked at her team, "But you can guess what is happening past that entrance. Now it is your call whether you want to complete the bare essential of the mission or... wait for their contacts to—"

Mikoto didn't wait any longer and Kushina shot from her location, too as Kai looked at Tsunade who frowned and inquired, "Would it work if we interrogate the leader ourselves?" Kai knew that no prisoners are allowed to be brought unless the mission asks for it. This is purely for security reasons as the prisoner could be a spy well-versed in breaking through the defenses.

"It could," Tsunade sighed, "But it won't do us any good. These seals must be provided again and the time of the resupply is not known. Now that the jig is up, the other party may as well have escaped but I can be sure that the slaves are being supplied to either Iwa or Kumo."

"Not Suna?" Kai inquired, ignoring the sounds of screams.

"They can't support fodders. Anyway, shouldn't you help your teammates?"

"Sensei, you didn't complete your orders before... and if possible, I would rather not see it... or smell it even when knowing what was happening before."

Tsunade's knuckle suddenly greeted the top of his head as he scowled while she grumbled, "Always something to reply with, cheeky squirt!"

"Then should I not answer to my superior?" His question left her speechless. And if she learned anything from her grandmother, in a state of speechlessness, adopt violence.

*Knock*

"Ow!"

---

Kushina saw red the moment she saw women on the ground... and children, too, with rough-necked men laughing and jeering. The images and case studies didn't do justice to the horror of the situation. Men were tied away, their eyes wide in despair as their mouths were covered and Kushina saw the leader as soon as he saw them... and ran while leaving his men right then and there!

"Stop it!" Mikoto shrieked, her eyes wide in rage and horror as she became a blur in the eyes of bandits, and next thing, stabbed through the back into the heart of the man on top of a sobbing woman still struggling. Kushina, however, followed the leader in a red blur and soon found him at the end of the entrance smashing his fist into the boulder, screaming, "Damn it! Open!"

He looked back and his eyes widened in fright, "Wait! I can—" and that's when Kushina's chokuto neatly sliced through the man's neck and she spun to kick the man's head, not willing to see it a second longer attached to his body.

Kushina snorted, stabbing into his body a few more times in pure rage, and picked the man's head before walking towards the dungeon where Mikoto lay in the pool of blood with the bandits around her all but dead and Tsunade had a green glow in her hand as she kept it over Mikoto's forehead.

Kai was freeing the men who promptly hugged the women they knew, crying alongside them as they didn't know how to process all this but they will, in time.

"Let's go," Tsunade muttered before looking at the group and slamming her hand on the ground, causing a large poof of smoke. By the time the smoke disappeared, the men and women saw a few sets of female clothes that came out of Tsunade's stash while the group of ninjas themselves alongside their unconscious teammate were long gone.

---

"I'm sorry!" Mikoto cried as she faced the pale, despondent faces of naked children and women, "I... should have come in quicker! Please—" she gasped as one of the women suddenly reached out and coldly tore her clothes when—

"Hah!" She gasped and sat up with a haggard expression. Her shoulders jumped up and down as she heaved, feeling her throat dry and...

"Uh," she clutched her head in pain as she felt something moving in her eyes. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel it and the sensation soon disappeared.

Slowly, she looked around. Her bedroom... Was the mission failure? She didn't remember much aside from the first few moments then her vision swam and her body just... moved.

Changing out of her current clothes, wondering if it was their maid who changed her, Mikoto walked out of her room. Her house was slightly larger than the others but looked mostly the same. Navy roof, wooden pillars, a slightly larger courtyard, and a few rooms. It was just somewhat sad that it was only her, her father, and their maid living here.

As she aimlessly passed the main living room, she heard a chipper voice, "Oh? You finally woke up. Come in."

Mikoto flinched but did as asked and slid open the door aside before entering the room where her father sat on a flat cushion while tending to a small stalk of a lily in a vase. Another empty flat cushion was placed in front of the man as Mikoto wondered how long he was waiting for her.

Sitting in front of him, Mikoto waited patiently as he began, "Tsunade Senju used her medical ninjutsu to lower the trauma you suffered. It is also reported that she is absolutely furious at you and the Uzumaki brat for running in without any caution or her orders being formed."

Mikoto winced while the man continued, "Congratulations." His large hand found its way over to her head and ruffled her hair as Mikoto whispered, "What's there to congratulate...?" Her tone was a notch gloomier as her father didn't stop patting her but spoke warmly, "Look at me, dear."

As Mikoto looked up, she found his previous black pupils now red with three tomoes rotating slowly and her body worked instinctively. Her own eyes turned red with a single tomoe in each eye. She just knew how her eyes looked at the moment.

"Do you hate it?" Yata inquired as Mikoto couldn't help but fall silent.

"I'm sorry, father. I broke the shinobi rules—"

"Bah, let the Hokage stick the rule up his ass! I asked you if you hate this?" Yata inquired while retracting his hand.

Mikoto bit her lips and whispered with tears on the verge of spilling out, "The requirement... is just too much..."

Now she could understand why a Sharingan user would never speak of the conditions to someone who didn't activate their Kekkei Genkai and unlocked the Sharingan.

It was painful. To relive those memories, that is.

"Hmm, what do you think the requirement is?" Yata inquired.

"Hate..." Mikoto whispered with bitingly cold words as tears spilled down her cheeks while her Sharingan deactivated, "I hated those bandits for what they did. I—"

"You loved and that's why you hated." Yata smiled, "Why do you hate?"

"Because..." Mikoto frowned. She never really thought about it and now felt that she had no answer. Even when her father just said that it was because of love... she couldn't possibly hold affection for strangers but seeing her confusion, Yata spoke up again, "Love for life, child. Death is a part of it and we see it daily. Death is just... peaceful. What we eat is dead. What we earn from is dead. What is dead remains dead and must be kept that way because death is supposed to be peaceful.

Life is harsh. But some hold the love for life and seeing it hurt pains them to a varying degree. The pain causes hatred. And the Uchiha awakens Sharingan if they feel a level of hatred. But the Sharingan is never a product of hatred and instead forms from love."

Mikoto silently mulled over it. She didn't want to but her gut told her that this would be beneficial for her.

"Then..." Mikoto wiped her tears and hicked a sob, "Why do I feel so guilty?"

"You tell me," Yata replied.

"I should have entered quicker and saved them!" Mikoto hissed.

"Maybe. Maybe you would have wound up dead. Or worse." Yata sighed as his Sharingan deactivated, "Mikoto, never confuse vengeance with aim. Vengeance is short-lived. Do you know what some of our members refer to as the three tomoes of our eyes?"

She shook her head.

"The Circle of hatred. Because they still hate those individuals who caused their Sharingan to grow so much. But do you want to know what my Jonin sensei used to call it?"

Mikoto nodded.

"The wheel of Love." Yata smiled, "He used to say that our Sharingan grow because we wish to protect and learn from our failures. The pain we feel is the testament that we are alive and WILL find someone to protect again and this time, succeed in it."

Her eyes widened slightly as Yata chuckled, "You can either think of hatred. Let the pain consume you and become part of this circle... or as my sensei would say, become the wheel, roll off the pain, and drift past hatred."

Mikoto hicked and chuckled at the bad pun, "Who was your sensei, father?"

"A man named Kagami Uchiha."

Mikoto nodded, burning this philosophy in her heart before frowning, "I also... felt helpless."

"Helplessness is the sign of weakness and the other way to think it is that the Sharingan responded to your urge for strength. Of course, there may be a more detailed explanation of how our kekkei genkai works but damnit, we're Uchihas and will romanticize Sharingan!"

Mikoto smiled and fell into her father's arms, hugging him tightly.

"There, there, you'll feel better."

"Father..."

"Yes, sweety?"

"I don't want to marry Fugaku!"

"Hah, nice try! This and that are unrelated!"

"But," Mikoto looked up, "Why Fugaku?"

"Because he is strong and will protect you, sweetheart," Yata smiled, "I won't be there for you forever."

This earned him a disapproving glare as Mikoto huffed, "If I am to marry someone strong, why not someone else? Fugaku isn't the strongest!"

"Well... he is strong and an Uchiha so, he checks out."

"I thought the main family line has the right to choose their spouses!" Mikoto grumbled.

"Of course, of course," Yata smiled, "But if you pick some outsider, you won't be a princess anymore, my princess."

"I'll see to that," Mikoto smirked, "And I'll find someone so strong that he would even beat you! Then, you won't have a problem, right?"

"Of course, not," Yata fussed over the girl, "I'll hate that son of a bitch but I'll be happy! Ah, my daughter wants me beaten!"

Their antics were cut short when a fair woman in a pink kimono knelt and spoke softly, "Yata-sama, Mikoto-sama's teammates are being held at the entrance of the compound and the guards are requesting your order."

"Let them in!" Mikoto grinned but the woman didn't move until Yata gave an approving hum and she flickered away, revealing herself to be a kunoichi.

"Tch, I don't like her..." Mikoto grumbled.

"Now, now, let's meet your friends. Especially that Kai..." Yata grinned viciously.

---

Kushina and Kai sat in front of Yata Uchiha who simply had a heavy aura around him. Mikoto sat beside them, feeling none of it with a happy smile.

"So... you're Kai, huh, Mito Uzumaki's proxy. I've been waiting for this personal meeting, boy." The man spoke grimly before thundering in a voice so loud that Kushina jumped up in a scare— "How dare you make fun of my daughter?!"

Kai blinked in surprise and looked at Mikoto who had a devilish smirk before looking back at Yata, "Lord Uchiha, the man you should find is our Sensei. He did send me out of class but never once verbally ordered me to stop. Honestly, the man couldn't stop looking away."

Yata huffed, "I see... alright."

They both nodded and Mikoto snapped, "That's it?"

"Well, the boy answered honestly so he is free of guilt."

Mikoto just... felt so empty now. If she hadn't awakened her Sharingan before, she would have now.

"Hmph, whatever, I'm not talking to you anymore!" Mikoto stood up and held Kushina's and Kai's arms before dragging them away.

As they left, the same woman entered the room as Yata muttered, "Be sure to... discreetly suggest Mikoto-chan about some effective contraceptives. I don't trust Academy with that and Tsunade seems the kind of woman who would rather concoct some strange technique to instead grow a child in a day and complete the delivery."

"That's quite the imagination, Yata-sama... if I didn't know any better I would think you want a child right now," The woman smiled but as Yata looked at her, he was the 'obvious' stare as he grew silent before huffing, "Well... if you put it THAT way..."

The woman smirked knowingly as she eagerly closed the door while her Kimono slipped down.

---

"I'm so sorry! I should have—"

Before Kushina could complete, Mikoto pulled both Kai and Kushina into a hug as Kai coughed, "Mikoto-chan, are you feeling fine?"

She snorted and pulled back before revealing her Sharingan to the team, "Better than fine! Kai, your winning streak will end now!"

It really... didn't.

***

Shout out to David, maurocf, Poke!!

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