Rebuilding the Uchiha.

I stared at the eyeless dead bodies, surrounding the exit of the compound. This was the work of more than one man, no matter what they would say. Taking the eyes would take time. Buildings ransacked, far as I was aware even the yellow flash couldn't have done this. I took a deep ash filled breath and laughed, a booming thing, I could feel another tomoe coming in. A smile spread across my face. I fucking survived, and yet it didn't work. I closed my eyes, trying to recall the contingency plans, the 'it'll never happen but' half formed ideas.

My eyes shot open, three rings of tomoe like a Rinnegan spread in them, eight tomoe spinning around. Time stood still, and I walked among the fires, using my massive storage scrolls to put all the valuables away. A second time stopped scroll had most of the powerful female ninja bodies in it, or at least part of the bodies. Cloning being a thing here, it's my only option to keep the clan alive and avoid inbreeding. That's when I found her, bleeding out, but still alive, well recently dead enough to be revived. She still had her eyes in her sockets. She was hidden in a house, looked like she had been dragged and placed there.

My hands hovered over her for a second, feeling the fading chakra of her still warm body. One last meditative breathe, and I started to get to work. She had a kunai in her chest near her heart. I pulled the blade out and got to work on fixing the hole. In less than a minute I had the nicked artery sewn up, the bleeding stopped, and the wound wrapped. Gods above I loved my obsidian scalpels. At that speed regular knives just don’t work for me.

Electricity flowed down my hand, and shocked her, and she breathed. Shallow but it was there. Then I was off back to ransacking at an extreme speed. She made a great excuse, I was saving the lives of my fellow clan members, and couldn't have been squirreling away bodies. I made sure to get some of the more prominent males, all elite Jonin. Just looking at the breadth of bodies, told me the Hokage was in on this, not just regular ninjas, but civilians, and quite a few of the allied clan’s ninja. I made sure to get the most distantly related ones I could reasonably. The police ninja who were supposed to be at the office, ninja I’d personally sent off on long term missions. All this right under my nose, they had to have been feeding me false information. 

I found one more slowly dying, I scoffed and moved on, fucker never liked me. One of those people who make too many problems to be worth keeping alive, add in the fact he had a hate on, for me, and I just left him to truly die… I was almost completely certain he'd been feeding me false information, considering he was supposed to be in another country. That I had a report from him on my desk, saying he and two others near his body were in the land of frost, trying to track down Tobi, one of the Uchiha missing ninja.

I made it into the local nursery, and found several dead infants, at least five who were killed by their parents. one should always pay attention to their surroundings when releasing a fire Jutsu. Then I found it, a dead Root ninja, their body embedded in the basement of a house nearby. I grabbed their body and put it in a separate storage scroll. Root, on paper, was still a subsection of the Anbu.

I had planned for this, didn't want it to happen, was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen, but still had plans for it. I knew if it did happen I’d likely be the only survivor. I expected them to extend their hand more openly though.

Scrolls, hidden moneys, deeds, titles, and writs of ownership, all grabbed before the rest could do it. A certain amount was already ransacked, but I’d get that back later. Bank statements, legers everything. I found family lore books, and so much needless death. So many were too far dead to be brought back, didn't stop me from trying.

Blood soaked I searched as fast as I could, as thoroughly as I could. Kaze Uchiha, the speedy one. Swift death, the Red Fang, twenty years here in this fucking hell hole, and here I am near the last one alive out of thousands of Uchiha. 

My mutated sharingan, estranged me from the clan, I had my apartment on the other side of the village. I had achieved three tomoe by ten years old, my older memories helping guide my development. Then I had a second ring and a single fourth tomoe by twelve, it just got better though. Instead of some ability my perception just got better and better with each ring with each tomoe. It was no mangekyou sharingan, but in many ways I thought it was better.

It was good this place was burning, burial by ash is needed when such atrocities happen. Like a phoenix, it would burn and be born anew, god have mercy on any who tried to stop me. I found five people I liked enough to attempt to save them despite their injuries. People I'd go out swinging for if it came down to it, and put them in a time-stopping scroll. All of them Genin and Chunin without their Sharingans activated. They still had their eyes.

It was truly a long night. I kept trying to save them, eyes, no eyes, it didn't matter, the more and more of it I saw. Uchiha, allied clan, civilian born married in, it didn't matter.

They found me in the morning when the blockade ended, kneeling looking at a massive funeral pyre, then I lit it off as the sun came up. I was pinned to the ground as it started to burn, and they put it out. The girl I saved when I first got here, beside me, looking up from the ground as Anbu put a knife to my throat. They were dead, a fire turning them to ash. A burst of elemental transformed chakra had shot out of me, with barely a thought.

“From stardust we come and to ashes I return.” I said as I stood up.

“My family is dead, my clan is dead, and now you interrupt their funeral.” I said I could hear somebody walking up behind me with kage level chakra. 

“You were exiled from the clan. Kaze.” the voice called out.

I scoffed, a glance down at the girl, whose red eyes followed my every action, “I had a bit of a falling out, but I was never exiled, Mito here can attest to that, Sasuke can attest to that, Tobi can attest to that, Itachi can attest to it, after all we’re all that's left of the clan. Two missing nin, a child, a gravely wounded genin, and me.” I turned to face him, Lord Third.

My blood shot eyes, had three tomoe in them, dried blood on my cheeks. I pulled out a scroll, and out came one of the root bodies. Everyone watched to see what would happen.

“Get your dog back on its leash, or see the weed removed by the ROOT.” I said looking at him, I kneeled down again, ripped open their bag, and watched the bottles of red eyeballs roll out. 

Another Anbu tried to get close and was carbonized in less than a second. The Hokage watched me, made a hand signal and the Anbu backed off. 

I took a deep breath, “Itachi did this on your dog's orders, I know this to be true and so do you.” 

Mito gasped, while several of the Anbu tensed, so I spoke, “So your gonna fuck off with that idea of getting our secrets you got there, already been ransacked, by your dogs men,” I kicked the body, its head caved in. 

Another Anbu got close, this one went slowly, first their foot then their other one, all less than ten seconds but they did scream in pain. It had truly been a shit day, my patience was see through thin. 

The third stayed silent, glancing around, he opened his mouth and I cut him off, “I get even a wisp of a ghost's ass of an idea that you're thinking of offing me and Mito here, and I’ll defect.” my eyes activated, all nine tomoe spinning in my eyes as my chakra flowed through them, and then I was there with my hand on his shoulder, “You couldn't stop me,” I said, “the last person who moved as fast as me is dead, and those who stood a chance of hurting me are dead.”

“Kaze, what do you want here?” he asked.

“You know what’s funny,” I laughed loudly, spun around looking at them all, “Bodies are missing mainly females, eyes taken by your dog, scrolls missing, a blockade, almost every single Uchiha back in the compound, then killed, there is at most ten Uchiha alive right now would be my guess, the very few who didn’t come here tonight probably being hunted down as we speak. Less than that in the village, but most likely there is only five of us, I wonder how long before the Uchiha eyes dot every village, how long before your fuck up here, and I do place the blame on you, comes full circle, with our bloodline spreading everywhere. I give it thirty years, before the other villages have their own red eyed clans. And you ask me what I want?” laughter kept on spreading out. I doubled over and my abs hurt from laughing so hard.

Sometimes, it was just better to laugh, because the alterative was breaking down.

“The Uchiha are untouchable now, I mean that in I see a single fucking Root ninja, any-fucking-where I am, going to kill your dog, your son your wife your grandkid, fuck I do the fourths kid too. That's not a want that's status quo now, get used to it.” I said looking him in the eyes, “No I want my fucking family back you son of a whore, but killing won’t give them back.”

 “Lord Fourth's son too?” he asked.

“Didn't think we knew of him did you, only so many orange haired kids running around, I know what he is too, same as his mother that one.”

He tensed, “Let me tell you a story about a single clan shinobi.” My voice carried it to every ear around me “He broke away, because the Kage at the time caused the death of his love, a civilian shinobi-ish girl, after his near death, he came to understand the whole system is fucked, war breeds death and resentment. He came back and killed that Kage his wife and tons of others and fucked right off again. Problem is everyone thinks he’s dead, so the next Kage gets it in their head that the guys clan did something so we’ll punish them all.” I looked at him, “Tobi is such a good boy, don’t you think?” I said looking at Lord Third. 

He didn't get it, “Don’t worry your successor will understand, just make sure the story is written down for them to read.” 

“Kaze what is it you wish to accomplish here?” he asked again, looking around at the assembled Anbu. 

“I thought it was evident, I was trying to burn the bodies, so you and all your fucked up clan heads don't go raping the corpses, so I don't have to think about the baby corpses, so I don't have to think about the dead eyeless families.”

Mito looked at me, her eyes shone with understanding. She saw them as I piled up the corpses, and added lumber. I looked at the soaked funeral pyre. A simple fireball Jutsu shot out and collided with it, setting it ablaze. 

Then it was drenched again, “If what you claim is true then they need to be tallied, to see who is missing.”

Laughter, I pulled out a notebook, “A list of names, rough descriptions, of every single body in the pile, you can do your check, but if it doesn't add up, I'll, I don't know, kill somebody you'll miss or something.”

The Anbu started to move, dismantling the funeral pyre.

“I’ll go with some to see if I missed any in the compound. I need to clear my mind.” I kneeled down to Mito, I wasn't sure why I was still shooting up and down, I’d done it a thousand more times that night.

As I was handing her an explosive tag box, easily a thousand bombs, I spoke “Top tag is an instant bomb, they try and kill you, pulse your chakra into these, the explosion will take out at least half the Uchiha compound.” I shoved it into her hand, made her hold it. 

She opened her mouth to retort, but I wasn't having it, “Insurance, one of us needs to stay here, keep watch to make sure they don’t start cutting open and taking seed and organs, and one of us needs to go around checking the compound to make sure I didn't miss anybody. If I leave and I have to, if I’m not there they’ll rob us blind, if I’m gone they may try and abscond with you, turn you into breeding stock.” horror on her face, I pressed the bomb harder into her hand, “There's a level of safety in this, they fuck around, and they’ll find out.”

She nodded, held it tight, she hadn't said a word since she woke up. Genjutsu made for a great communication tool.

I pulled out my hip flask and held it to her lips, “Little bit of sake in it, keeps it clean and safe to drink. Be ready for that.” I let her take a good drink.

She stopped after a few mouthfuls. Ran my fingers through her hair for a second just staring at each other, then I smiled. She used her eyes to tell me to go. I stood up and left.

I followed the Anbu group the Hokage assigned to search around, they mainly just looked around, as they searched for bodies. We found one. Buried underground. The sensory ninja didn't speak but used hand signs. It was probably a Hyuga. I dug them up with a simple earth Jutsu, a grave digging one. It was one of those Jutsu that was just about given away. I reached down to pick her up, and she was warm, in a second I was checking her over, no wounds, I held my fingers to her throat checking for a pulse, none. CPR it was. Trapped in a Genjutsu till she died. Buried in the ground, alive. I kept pumping her chest keeping a steady beat, I kept going, and going, till she suddenly gasped. It had been ten minutes. 

“He betrayed us.” she wheezed right into my mouth as I pulled back from breathing for her.

I grimaced, “God your breath stinks.” I muttered as I sat up. She tried to sit up and then laid right back down.

“Fuck my chest hurts, Kaze what did you do?” she said louder, “ And why the fuck are we surrounded by Anbu like a nobility and their harems?”

I smiled, “Brought you back to life, no pulse, no breathing, takes a bit for the brain to die, forced your heart to beat manually, and breathed into your lungs, not as good as fresh air but better than nothing.”

She looked around while sitting up, “You got anything for the pain?”

“Crushed poppy seeds. Addictive as all hell though so no, nothing for you.”

“You broke my ribs.”

“That tends to happen when I’m putting my body weight on them and using it to compress your heart.”

She chuckled then grimaced, “So who’s alive, and what is happening.”

“Me, Mito a Genin girl, you, Sasuke, Tobi and Itachi, are the only ones I know for sure are alive, several people are missing, mainly females, several elite Jonin males. Root, was there taking eyeballs, so that's something to worry about. I threatened to kill the Hokage lines except the princess. Uh, pretty sure Anbu are ransacking the place. I piled up all the corpses I could find in a funeral pyre. I'm pretty sure we’re out of curtains, wrapped every single one of them up, I just couldn't keep seeing.” she looked into my eyes, so I cast a weak Genjutsu showing her highlights of me trying to avert this. From talking to the Fourth Hokage before his death about Danzo Shimura, to outright telling Itachi it wouldn't be worth it.

I finished it up with a ninja causing problems at my apartment, how they distracted me, pulled me away, so I couldn't save them. They kept me away. Let her know this was something I saw coming for a long time, and had tried to avert it. I added a single bit to the end, they would pay for this.

I helped her stand up, she leaned on me, then she looked at the grave hole I’d pulled her out of, I cut off any questions, wasn't in the mood to dabble in conversing vocally, “Buried alive, likely suffocated while under a Genjutsu.” I would tell and it would be.

I would talk though, she needed it. I knew this was a possibility, she did not. 

“So Itachi didn't betray us? That was all just a lie of whoever actually did this.” she sounded relieved

“Yes and no, he didn't do it alone, Tobi, Itachi and Root did it.” I responded.

“Root?”

“Think secret Anbu, but not beholden to the Hokage, but his dog.”

“Retaliatory?”

“Preemptive, far as I’m aware, I don't actually know your name.” I stated, instead of asking.

“Kanna Uchiha, Chunin, I was planning on taking the Jonin promotion.”

“First time?”

“Yeah.”

“They’d have failed you, even if your good enough skill wise, first timers fail over eighty percent of the time, they know the Jutsu, have the chakra, but can’t pass the mental and knowledge tests, when's the last time you saw a Chunin pop open a text book, or try and learn a skill to blend in better.”

She started to shake and then sob, so I stopped and held her. Just letting her work through it, her eyes bled. I rubbed her back as she held onto me like the last buoy in a hurricane. She would have passed the test no problem. Broken ribs, dead clan and still keeping it together enough to pay attention to the possibly hostile masked ninja around her, all the while her sharingan was getting stronger. I looked into her eyes when she loosened her death grip on me, three tomoe. 

“Congrats, you're now a three tomoe. Feels like shit don't it.” I smiled down at her.

She tried to step back and stumbled, “It’ll take a moment, don’t rush it, don’t close your eyes, squint if you have to, just relax, and look at me.” she did that, I held up my hand, “Focus on my hands.” I started to make a series of hand signs, same ones every Uchiha memorized. 

She started to calm down, following along, I didn't flow my chakra just did the hand signs faster and faster, till she blinked. Then I slowed them down just a tad and kept going. She stopped and started to blink the blood out of her eye. 

I waited, “You think three is bad image six, it's like I can see everything, time seems to just up and stop, imagine trying to blink and it takes the mental equivalent of ten minutes to simply close one’s eyes.” to say nothing of the nine I now had.

She smiled just a tad, and I smiled back. We looked insane, one blood soaked the other crying tears of blood, embracing and smiling at each other while surrounded by Anbu. 

Edo Tensei or Shadow Clones, The Hokage has thousands of hands, I needed some of my own. He could afford to bury powerful ninja in bodies if it came to that, I wanted that. Several fully autonomous versions of myself, or corpses that do my bidding, would go a long way to keeping my peace of mind. My current work around was an earth clone and puppetry, with fully sped up perception of time. 

“What you say we go check in on Mito, Sasuke is in the hospital, we can check on him later.” I said and started heading back, I looked at the Anbu, “Find any still warm minimally damaged bodies, I might be able to bring them back, bring them to me as fast as you can.” I commanded.

I ended up carrying her, she buried her face in my neck, clenching her eyes shut. She held me like I’d disappear if she let go. Two streets away from the pyre an Anbu kneeled in front of me holding up a child’s corpse. I sat Kanna down and got to work examining the body. A head wound, not bleeding anywhere other than the bash on their skull. The will of fire was a load of shit, this child probably already killed their first man.

Their shirt came off, and CPR started, while pulsing my chakra into her. Ten minutes later, I stopped and called upon my lighting chakra, and slammed it into the body. The whole body spasmed then I was back doing compressions, another five minutes passed. She was breathing but not waking up. She looked like Rin, Obito;s teammate, two purple markings on her face but they came to a point instead of the usual rectangle of her clan, the Nohara. An allied clan of the Uchiha like the Nekomata.

“This was Tobi’s work.” I said as I sat up, Kanna sat holding her ribs watching me.

“Why the lighting?”

“Jump start the body, I’m not a hundred percent sure how it does it other than something with the chakra coils.”

I stood up, and glanced around “You Anbu girl, get her to the hospital, she’s Nohara clan I think, probably a half.”

The dog masked woman at the edge of eyesight nodded, picked up the girl and ran away. I went to Kanna, helped her up and made my way to the funeral Pyre. The bodies were still wrapped, but were now laid out in rows. Seeing another Uchiha walk into the area several people stiffened. Might be able to trick the eyes of a wounded Genin, but Kanna and I were in a whole different league.

A quick scan and I caught somebody with syringes of blood and other fluids. My chakra augmentation flowed down my legs, and then I was beside him from an outsider's perspective. Kanna barely caught me kneeling down into a runner's stance then sprinting to him. Tree standing exercise sticking my feet to the ground, keeping me from flying into the sky, sometimes ripped small chunks of the road out.

Everything on his person was stripped and sat to the side, clothing cut away from the body. Naked as the day he was born, after a whirlwind of activity. I looked over everything, tissue collections, syringes of blood, syringes of sperm, just about everything needed to clone or breed out an Uchiha.

Two Anbu appeared beside him, “We’ll take him from here.”

“No.” I said, “I still have to check him for markings to make sure he isn't root, otherwise the rest of my day becomes ending other’s blood lines.”

I grabbed the man's jaw forcing his mouth open, looked inside, then poured my chakra into his mouth, and watched for any sign of a seal. Checked his eyes, then found one on his heart.

“Has a heart seal of some kind, I’m not familiar with it so he’s probably not a local, best guess spy from another village.” I took a good look at him, he stayed silent, “You know, you would have been better served approaching to facilitate a defection instead of all of this.” I pointed to the pile of samples. 

He nodded, “Orders are orders.”

“Low end single use spy, may your next life be somewhere better than here.” I said to him, “If it's any consultation your boss is an idiot.”

He nodded, mouthed thank you, and was pulled away by the Anbu. I burned his samples to ash with a burst of fire from my hand. He faced his death like a man, not root style, too much stoicism in his eyes. He wasn't dead inside. The remnants of my chakra if used right gave him a chance to go out on his own terms. 

Mito was off to the side, several people standing just right to hide the actions of others with their bodies. It was to be expected but, it irked me. I went back to Kanna and helped her walk to Mito. Kanna sat down, and I just gazed about, so many familiar faces gaping eyeless faces staring back.

I just kinda stood there staring, but not seeing anything. I’m alive and my clan is dead, even with my fucked up eyes I couldn’t save them. Even knowing the basics of how it was going to go down and approximately when, I still failed. A twenty year head start was worthless. I didn't know when I fell over, when I started staring at the sky. When the tears refused to stop. I barely breathed, always been this way. Once the adrenaline leaves, when there's no longer something that needs done, that's when I break. 

I knew on a logical level, it’s just my body bringing hormone and emotion chemicals in my brain and elsewhere to their normal levels. I knew on some level I should have been up and at it, making sure they didn’t do anything to the bodies. I laid there next to Mito and Kanna. Kanna put my head in her lap, and started to stroke my hair. 

The sun was high in the sky when I sensed it, my tears long ran dry, I just couldn't muster the motivation to move, using my sensory abilities was good enough. One of the bodies flickered, gone, and was replaced. Time stopped, as I got up. Walking over to the unwrapped female Uchiha, one Johnin Sarada Uchiha, well a pretty good copy of her. It was almost perfect, as I kneeled down next to the ninja, who thought herself smart. She wore the typical Anbu ensemble, a fox mask this time. 

Drawing my sword I half expected somebody to move, somebody to tell me to stop. The Uchiha always had trouble with their emotions and impulse control. 

A single slice, and time sped up, my mind fully in the moment. They watched as her head flew across several bodies before rolling on the ground, her eyes still looking around. I stood up. As the sudden wind flapped the cloth wrapping the corpses.

“Next person who tries to steal a body of one of my clan members, gets their entire fucking bloodline killed.” I yelled out loud as I fucking could. 

I took a deep breath and screamed, “I want a fucking yes sir, do you understand me?”

Several of them flinched, several of them looked to where the Hokage was, off to the side watching.

I felt it creak inside me, that singular pulse of madness, “The Hokage will not save you.” I said in the silence, all the same it rang out, the same as if I screamed my heart out.

In the theoretical ranking of ninja I was low Kage, Sannin level. In reality, speed is king, I couldn't kill the Hokage and it was iffy when it came to the Sannin, but I could damn well kill anyone else who tried to steal one of their bodies.

“Kaze,” the Hokage called out, “while this is a troublesome time, remember the will of fire.”

“Listen up, you dumb shits, you stand before the corpses of my clan, you will treat them with respect, or you will die, you will not try to steal anything or you will die.” I said, their eyes on my blood red eyes, as I commanded them. 

A small smatter of ‘yes sirs’ rang out in response. Human decency was long dead. 

I looked at Hiruzen, and calmly walked toward him, several of the Anbu tensed up, his two closer body guards took extra note of me. I sitll had m sword out. Mito and Kanna nodded to me as I walked by them. All I could smell was blood, my hands dripping it. I could hear it, my ledger, the blood flowing off its pages. I hated this world, the madness quaked, bucked and thrashed. All the same, it stayed firmly locked away. A thousand easier steps, I could have killed Danzo and been on the run. I could have killed Fugato, or Itachi, or Hiruzen, or, or, or. It was merely one regret among thousands. They were merely drops in an ocean.

I came to him, “They’re done, pack it up.” I whispered, “Make sure the bodies are back how I had it.”

“Kaze, we’re nowhere near done, there are thousands to verify and go through.” he said, trying to reason with me.

“I regret not dropping one of my bomb boxes and ending you and the elders, Hurizen, it's not the day to push me, it’s the day you… you push anymore, and I am going to snap, and I am not going to mend myself,” I pulled out a sealing scroll and a pile of Root ninja bodies appeared.

Over ten dead ninjas, and these were just the ones left behind after the massacre. The ones, forgotten in the haste to retreat. The betrayal, and the proof.

He gasped, so did the Anbu, “I regret not slipping down the root tunnels and simply planting so many bombs there is no village, I regret trying to play nice. So I’m not going to anymore, they have one hour to finish up and put them back or they start dying, and I will not stop till I am dead.”

I sat down, on the pile of bodies, it shifted a little but held well enough. Hurzen nodded and whispered in his Anbu captain’s ear, who used the Flicker Jutsu to zoom away relaying orders.

“It shall be done, my Captain is off to requisition some cameras, the faces can be compared to the census later. I understand you want to get the funeral over with as soon as possible.” he said bowing to me.

I nodded slightly, “If I thought I could trust you to keep your butt buddy in line, I’d be rushing Mito and Kanna to the hospital right now, I’d be consoling Sasuke, instead I have to keep vultures from robbing us blind. From cutting wombs out, and fucking the corpses.” his face contorted with sadness, almost a tear to his eye, as I spoke.

I hated this talking, I hated that it had to be said, that I had to speak at all, Konoha just lost a great many capable ninja, and had its police force gutted. I should be holding the other survivors, I should be mourning the loss, and my failure, instead, I have to make threats, and kill off the greedy. 

“This happens again.” I said to him the threat was left unsaid.

“I understand, this, this was not what I wanted.” 

“Root is no more, I see a single one anywhere, and you, your kids, their kids, the fourth’s kid, the elders and all their children, will die.” I reiterated, “I don’t care how much collateral it takes anymore. I have failed, and now clan extermination is on the board as an acceptable measure.”

He nodded, “Do unto others as they have done unto yourself, treat all how you wish to be treated. You said those words to me many years ago, a retired shinobi.” he smiled, “You said that is the Will of Fire, at its core.”

“That I did, even back then I saw this coming, Lord Second put the pieces in place, and you all moved exactly as he wanted. Back then it felt like I was the only one who understood that, and yet all the same I danced along to the song. Heard the words, and still danced, I don’t think I can dance anymore, my feet are bloody, and the song is so close to over.”

“Maybe new shoes would help sooth your feet?” he asked.

I looked him over, the Anbu guards watched me, “Edo Tensei.”

He leaned back, “It won't bring them back.”

“Never thought it would, but I can trust what it brings back, especially to protect what survived them.” 

Hiruzen took out his pipe and took a cold huff, “That’s only one shoe.”

“Shadow clones.”

“You have the chakra for it certainly, but another you…”

“Suddenly I can be in two places at once.”

There was a pause where he ruminated on it.

“I thought about that story you told, Tobi you called him, is he really alive?”

“With only one eye, from what I managed to gather.”

“Any sources you’d be willing to divulge.”

“My own two eyes, I caught sight of him during the attack all those years ago, only unaccounted for Mangekyo, the other one, I knew where it was. Wasn't hard to deduce. Asides if the clan had that type of power, well we’d have used it quite differently.”

The Anbu bodyguard still there broke protocol, “How?” she asked.

“Personally I’d have stolen other tailed beasts, implant them in some Uchiha. Use the increased chakra to train them into Kage tier ninja, and make a bid for the spot of fifth Hokage.” I looked her over, she wasn't bad looking, well toned muscles, high jonin chakra, not yet elite Jonin, good posture, “If you're going to join the conversation, lose the mask.”

She looked at the Hokage and he nodded back, she removed the mask. I didn't recognize her, the slight disappointment on her face when I didn't react to her told me she expected me too. She had dark hair with a pale almost white streak, and black lips, it tingled the old ‘goth girl’ radar from another life.

She was pretty, I could see her micro expressions as my eyes spun, “I find myself not in the mood to entertain your game, who is she?” I asked less than politely.

“Ruri Hagoromo, some of the non-ninja of her clan, survived from the warring states period.” Lord Third explained.

I looked her over again, “Our clans used to be allies against the Senju, if I recall right.”

“And then your clan abandoned mine for the Senju.”

“And now we’re dead.”

She flinched, looking at me, then glancing again at the rows of bodies. Genuine remorse made an appearance on her face before she swallowed it back down to stoicism. 

“I apologize it was rude of me to bring up such matters.” she said bowing to me. 

I motioned for her to stop bowing, “Everyone involved in it is dead, the sins of the father are not the sins of the child. That is my take on it.”

She furrowed her brows, “Yet mine still suffer for it.”

“We all suffer for the sins of our ancestors, and the ancestors of others.”

I took a swig from my flask, “Drinking?” she asked with disdain written all over her face, while Hiruzen shot her a glare.

“You’ve never been in the war I see,” I responded, disdain dripping from every word “never seen a man shit out his intestines from unclean water.” I swished the water, “Boiled and a bit of distilled sake.”

She looked between my disdain and Hiruzen's glare and sunk inwards a tad.

Hiruzen said, “A day like this, a man's entitled to his drink,” he looked at me, “I know you like mead. I’ll see what can be arranged, it's not shoes, nor an apology, just a gift.”

I nodded slightly, one of the corpses under me farted, I stood up. While macabre it did send the right message. You just don’t mess with the guy sitting on a pile of your dead black ops operatives. Ruri tensed and the atmosphere changed. Blood had long soaked the ground, a mix of ash and blood making mud beneath my feet.

“Everyone should get a full check up, there's sickness in blood.” chakra would help, but some of them were bound to get a bit sick. 

“I’ll issue the orders and cut off any trench fever that might crop up.” Hiruzen replied.

There were several ninjas with bulky cameras taking pictures of the dead, I motioned one of them over, had him take some pictures of the houses, the streets, and a child's shoe in the middle of the road still splattered with blood. They’d go in with the reports, my way of trying to make sure the heinousness was conveyed. To try and show the line that had been crossed.

When I was done, so were the ninja, I stood before the pyre. Mito and Kanna beside me.

“Part of me wishes we could bury them all, and believe them safe.” I spoke aloud.

“It's better this way, No one will do anything, and we’ll bury the ashes, give them a monument.” Kanna replied. 

I nodded, “Mito, anything to suggest?” I asked.

“It’s not just Uchiha in there, Nekomata and other ninjas were here in the compound. Do you really have their names?” she asked, looking up at me, from where she laid.

“Yes, I found the clan census book, the clan leaders' copy to be exact. Those I couldn't identify I stored for later,” I transmitted through a Genjutsu to them. 

Surprise was written on both of their faces. I’d go through the others later when I wouldn’t crack from just a glance. I’d probably return the allied clan ninja back to them, for their own funerals. Their own mourning. For now it was ours, I sent out a simple fist sized fireball, alongside Kanna and Mito. Theirs were larger, but mine just kept burning. After a few seconds the newly scattered oil caught fire and the whole thing went up. 

The few remaining Ninja watched the flames dance, civilians would note an odd smell. The whole thing was highly unusual, from a pragmatic point though several spies had been routed. No where near made up for the loss of the Uchiha but every little bit helped them balance the village's ledger. They’d need every win they could get.