It was coming up on one month since the massacre, I’d routed out or at least identified most of those responsible. The root operatives were hidden away, but the rats managed to find a couple of master lists. Finding Orochimaru's old lab wasn't a pleasant discovery. It was still in use.

I walked through it in person, with a gas mask on my face. The sleeping gas filling the lab created a smoke like haze in the air. I walked among the sleeping bodies finding my way to the main record room. The room was full of shelving with a single desk in the back. Sitting down at the desk I found older notes on trying to integrate Hashirama’s cells into infants, laying out. I glanced down at the researcher slumped in the floor by the desk chair, then back to the notes, this was some heinous reading.

I snapped my fingers, clones and summons all wearing their own gasmasks started rifling through the records, I started to read up on the cell integration experiments. I saw a possibility of getting eternal Mangekyou sharigans without having to take them from close relatives. The earliest ones where date stamped prewar, the day after Lord Fourths death. The Hokage and Danzo wanted controlled wood release users fast, and Orochimaru took my half-drunk lesson on sustainable testing to heart. It was like walking through a video game and finding old lore, putting together what happened from several sources. The Snake wanted to start testing between summons and their common counterparts. After a few successful tests, the Hokage and Danzo handed over orphans within hours of getting good results. They planned for human testing, and the Snake wanted to do it right. 

I read through some more recent reports, Orochimaru did go through with the summon testing, using one of the snakes from Ryuchi cave with permission form the Snake sage. It showed promising results, turning regular snakes into halfway summon in strength about one in seventeen times, with increased intelligence to match about half of those. It was more and more records of the research, then there was a sudden change to a single page full of a rant about why Hiruzen wouldn't even ask for a corpse of the monkey summon. It was the last page.

The date almost drew a gasp from my lungs. It was dated the day before Orochimaru was forced out of the village. The rant mentioned going above Hiruzen and asking the monkey summons directly for permission. I was noted several times in the rant and the research papers, it alluded to things I didn't even remember saying. Going back through the papers I found it, a sticky note reminder to check on me with a date. For one day a year I drink till I can't even see straight, let alone walk. The anniversary of the day the hell known as the ninja world broke me. The snake had taken to finding me after I was sufficiently drunk and pumping me for information.

I looked around at the unconscious researchers, most of them new. The amount of sudo-research going on was appalling. Brute forcing and random guessing. No sustainable methodology, I honestly wouldn't have cared if it wasn't for the orphans. It sped up the time table, it would be at most three days before they realized the lab was shut down. All the records would be transferred to hidden rooms below the police headquarters. The data and knowledge would help with my own research into cloning of dead Uchiha.

 

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There were surprisingly few actual dirty police officers, less than five were fully aware of their actions, but they did enough damage. All of them were high up the chain of command, Jonins mainly. No trial, no loud fight, they just disappeared. Surprisingly I was the only one they were sure didn't do it. Problem was I didn't do it. Probably Danzo cleaning up loose ends, before I could get to them.

I had no clones nearby when it happened. There were only tidbits to be heard about it, as they had put the T&I department on investigation. Say what one would about the torture department they had tight operational security. Yet all the same it was useless; rats can get anywhere they want to be. It didn't matter, I’d cut out most of the village's  rotten flesh, the rest could be removed later. I only had three days before my new self imposed deadline.

I caught several Anbu agents lacking. Lacking morals, lacking skill, lacking just about anything. While they stalked all of my clones, my clones paid attention to them. The ninja skilled enough I wouldn't notice them, those were who I needed to keep track of. Smacking around several Anbu agents for getting sloppy, was just stomping the grass to see if the snakes moved. Once I had a snake the other hands would make sure to keep an eye on them. If I was anyone else I would have been brought in for disciplinary action, or branded as a rouge operative, a missing nin.

At the end of the day I was still a respected ninja of the Leaf, a Kage tier combatant in their home field. There was an ingrained fear of the monsters of the ninja world, for both ninjas and cilvilians. There was this notion that all the greats where a little bit off in the head, taking a hands on approach to keeping the Anbu following me in line was almost expected of me. It bred a fearful respect among the Anbu. It helped create an image of it all just being an elaborate training exercise. 

The average civilian in a random village had no idea who the Copy Ninja was, they knew Hashirama Senju though, they knew Madara. When they started hearing about Kaze Uchiha, I was put on the same level as the other greats. I was a monster and they were slowly finding that out. Three hundred clones, plus officers hinged as me, I was the ninja face they saw. When they thought of ninja, they didn't think of the Hokage or some great ninja, they thought of Kaze Uchiha, the man on every corner of Konoha. Every merchant who left the village brought tales of the one ninja police force.

I found several of my clones wondering how their opinion of me would change in just a week. If I would be loved or hated by the general populace? If I would end up like Orochimaru? How my new growing reputation would impact the world? I lived everyday three hundred times, it made me feel sorry for anyone who ever wound up in a time loop. 

Danzo hadn't slept in his house in days, and I now had the locations of several root bases. That had nothing to do with my clones following him visibly every time he tried to be out in public. The extra hands had the scents of every operative he met with. Hiruzen hadn't left the Hokage's office in a week. Itachi was using crow summons to report back to the village. I was still working on tracking down the exact crow family, but I would get them. 

Kanna had taken to ambushing me trying to act out scenes from Jiraiya's smut. If she had her way I wouldn't leave the bed at all. She was starting to scare me just a tad. She had built a nursery for our first kid, and was already picking out baby clothes. I hoped I wouldn't regret telling them what exactly rebuilding the Uchiha would entail. It was one thing to peripherally understand what it meant and another to have it spelt out.

Mito was training harder, but it was aimless, just running through katas and practicing Jutsu over and over. I had a clone looking through the files I pulled on potential women for expanding the clan, looking for a suitable tutor for her on a long term basis. Two birds, one stone.

Sasuke was still in mourning, throwing himself into training. I was debating on taking him camping. Do it under wilderness survival training. I put books on properly mourning in his room. He glared at me the next day and set them in the inhouse library. I got him a biography of a Senju ninja during the warring states period. It talked about losing comrades and how she dealt with it. I got Mito and Kanna both copies, it was a good read.

All of them were getting impatient wondering why I hadn't acted. It went unsaid, but I could see the restlessness setting in, it might have all been in my head though. Between summoning and clones, I was exhausting my chakra daily. Planning a time to discuss what was going on had to be unloaded to Kanna. When I asked her, her face lit up like a supernova in the night.  She spent the evening cooking, not a naked apron this time. 

We all sat at the dining room table, Kanna set the table with glee. I saw a copy of a romance book in the kitchen, it looked vaguely kitchen themed from the few pages I flipped through. For a bit it was just Kanna and I sitting there at the table.

“Thanks for this,” I said, holding her hand.

Her smile brought a warmth to my chest “You’re welcome, anything you want to discuss before the others get here?” she squeezed my hand.

A million things ran through my head, before I settled on what to say, “I appreciate the effort you've put in. If it wasn't for you I don’t think I could have managed it.”

Understanding shot through her eyes, I gently cupped her cheek and kissed her. Her eyes stared intensely into mine. It felt a bit awkward so I closed mine, focusing on the taste of her lips. 

Mito coughed in the doorway. Sasuke came around her, sitting down grabbing his food, that looked less spiced than mine. We scooted apart, back to our respective spots at the table. Everyone started eating, Mito and Sasuke both ravenous after training. I waited a few minutes letting everyone get some food in them before I started.

“Clan dinner,” I said loudly at the dinner table, “have you all started reading Blood Filled Rivers, that I got you all?”

Sasuake nodded, “Iruka Sensei saw it in my bag, made it mandatory class reading.” I held back my smile, donating over a hundred copies to the school worked.

Who knew money fixed so many of life’s problems. One of my research clones had slipped the book into his school bag. Mito kept on eating ravenously. 

“It was a bit dry, she rarely indulged herself, and when she did she did not describe it beyond a few words.” Kanna said, pulling out her annotated, dog eared, and scribbled on copy.

I looked at it, she had to read the book at least twice, “I thought it was a good book for all of us to read. Mito in the book she speaks about how she trained, Kanna she talks about her pregnancy, and Sasuke she talks about dealing with betrayal and death.”

“Do I have to read it, can’t you train me?” Mito asked. 

“One size fits all book?” Kanna spoke over Mito, flipping to a page around the middle of the book,

I held up a finger to Kanna, and looked to Mito, “I am looking into getting you a long term tutor, while I could put a clone towards training you, the majority of my training would not translate well to you.” I turned back to Kanna lowering my hand, “It's a start is all, I thought compared to Jiraiya's smut it might be more accurate.”

“You don’t wanna train me?” Mito sulked, before Kanna could even open her mouth.

“No not really,” I responded before my brain could catch my mouth, I cut her off before she could retort “I’m self taught, almost every single ninja I have ever met can not control their physical and spiritual energy separately at the same time. Do you really want to sit down and meditate for the next six months to five years, because that's the base skill I approach all of my ninjutsu with?”

I could see her face scrunching up, the hurt locking in. A bone heals, while emotional wounds can last a lifetime.

I sighed, “I don’t teach because I can’t, I have chakra hypersensitivity been that way my whole life. It can be taught as an extension of chakra sensing, but I don’t know how, which is why I am looking for a ninja to hire to teach you chakra control and Taijutsu.” I took a bite of my food, it was good, “After you have a good grasp on chakra control, I can teach you chakra sensing, and we can look into finding a teacher to teach you how to sense your internal chakra on a constant basis.” From there I would teach her how to control her internal energies before they merged and became chakra.

Kanna gave me a look, I taught, just not Genins. Teaching was a skill I never mastered, the sharingan would help, but if all it took to get good was to just watch someone better, the Uchiha would have already conquered the world. Someone who already had a good base could take my ramblings and half explanations and make something with it.

Mito smiled, “So if I get good at chakra control you’ll teach me not a clone?” I could see the hope in her eyes.

“Probably a clone, I can promise a shadow clone though.” I conceded.

She narrowed her eyes furrowing her brows, then looked at Kanna who nodded. I was out of the loop on something. I felt played, her face went from on the verge of tears to a small hopeful grin way too easily.

“Sasuke, this next big break, me and you, wilderness survival training. I’ll teach you how to survive if you get stranded in the wilderness. Or if you have to hide out for a while.” he shot his scowl at me, and nodded quietly.

I ate a few more bites of my rice. It was nice, some rice, gravy and meat, Kanna had outdone herself with the seasoning though.

“Can you afford to be out of the village for that long?” Kanna asked.

I smiled, it was good food, “Yeah, the current recruits should be ready by then, and I can ease back how many clones I send out. I won't be too far from the village.”

We ate in silence. Brooding child, oddly happy teenager, Kanna who smiled wider with every bite I took. Something was up. 

“Food’s good Kanna, you did really well with it.” I said, trying to change the mood.

She looked like the cat that ate the canary.

“You're too happy about that, what did you do to the food?”

She gave me an impish smirk, “Secret.”

Sasuke's eyes shot wide open and he shoved his plate away and ran from the table. Mito was on her third plate. She pulled his plate over to her, and dumped his dinner onto her plate.

Kanna broke into giggles once sasuke was out of earshot, “Did you see his eyes?”

I chuckled too, making memories. I had no idea what he thought they did to the food, and I felt like I should have. 

“You know he’s going try and throw his up.” Mito said, looking up from her plate.

“It's a good skill to have, on demand vomiting, lets you eat slow acting poisons with a target and then remove it from your system later, you’ll still get a small dose though.” I said.

“You ever had do that?” Mito asked Kanna.

“Once, it was sleeping pills on a client who wanted more than they paid for. Back when I was a Chunin, Jonin commander on that mission chewed me out for it.” Kanna explained.

A lull in the conversation full over us. Mito was eating with gusto, as much as she had eaten I couldn’t be sure all the food hadn't been spiked with anything, but it was a good sign. 

“Will we all be getting tutors like Mito?” Kanna slyly asked.

“You already have somebody in mind?” I replied

“You once mentioned the step beyond Kage was Sage.”

I put my full attention on her, “Sage’s are… they’re not something I can arrange, of the sages I know of, any one of them could walk into any village and kill everyone. Myself included.”

“But you do know them?”

“Of them, I know each of the Sannin have contracts with summons that have sages, there are other sages out there. Just none that I am aware of and have a rapport.”

“What about the crabs?”

“They have sages, they're just very large, or very old and respected, and most importantly not of the clan I am contracted with. I know enough to attempt to learn the sage arts to be honest, but it would almost certainly kill me.”

She looked at me like I was lying.

“The Snake Sage, and by Sage I do mean masters of the sage arts not students like Jiraiya. She rules a cave full of snakes like the Snake Sannin’s summons, to put it in perspective, she is to a Kage what a Kage is to a Jonin.” I tried to explain, then paused to eat another bite.

“So the toad sage is just as strong?” she goaded for more information.

I shook my head, swallowed then spoke, “The toads specialize in seeing the future, and making prophecies. I don’t know much about the slug sage beyond it exists, and the monkey sages probably dislike us a great deal.”

 “Monkey sages?” Mito chimed in, then went back to her food.

“Hiruzen," I said like that explained it, it did not so I continued, "taught the Sannin, set up their summoning contracts. His personal summon is a Sage, not a truly strong one from what I understand, but a well connected one.”

“Is that why you're hesitating?” Kanna asked, suddenly sitting right next to me.

I looked into her red eyes, “No," I quietly snapped almost offended,  "I like the village itself, I could say I love it, it is home. Been home for twenty going on twenty one years now. They will die, but it's like I’m also cutting off an infected finger. Danzo’s position is vital, espionage and secret killing need to happen. You can’t keep a village like this going without overwhelming power, or removing some problems before they happen, I worry about how to deal with it after they’re gone.”

“You see yourself in Danzo, both of you acting behind the scenes, both of you trying to help the village, like a dark mirror of each other.” Kanna cut me down with every word.

I glanced down at my hands, at the metaphorical blood on them “To be honest I guess I do. But for the village to live, someone has to do these kinds of things.”

“Why don’t you do it?” she was pushing into my personal space, watching my expressions.

“I'm not the kind of person who could condemn children to… I already hate the ninja academy, I couldn't do what Root does.”

“Then be overwhelmingly powerful.”

It really was that simple. This could very well be the last dinner I’d have. It had to be done though. I needed it to happen. Blood needed to be repaid. There would be justice for the Uchiha or I would die trying. 

“Tomorrow.” I said barely a whisper.

She kissed my cheek, I felt a single tear run down my face. I hated this world, where the young fight and die because they never had another choice. That I walked a path among monsters. If I wanted a better world I needed to be a bigger monster, and train others to take up the mantle once I died. I would try the simple way first, take the higher road one last time, I owed myself that. 

“It was virility spices, Sasuke saw them on the counter while I cooked.” she whispered into my ear with a grin.

If something went wrong it may be my last night, I was going to enjoy it. Mito watched us kiss with hunger in her eyes. There was something going on I wasn’t aware of between them.

 

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I got up, pulling myself from Kanna’s embrace. Everything was in place. Weeks of planning and execution. So many false leads. I checked my watch. I had to time first plan perfectly. 

I brushed my teeth and took a shower. I put on my good mourning clothing. The ones I wore when Lord Fourth died. They didn't fit right anymore, but it got a chuckle out of Kanna. I ripped the back of the coat trying to get it on and gave up. I put on my ceremonial outfit from my police chief position. The pants were a little tight, but fit well enough.

Today I didn't have a single clone openly patrolling, a few hung around incase something went wrong. I relaxed my iron grip on my internal energies. My spiritual energy put a pressure on everyone around me. In a lot of ways it was like I’d just opened one of the eight gates. This physical energy I’d held back for so long suddenly flooded my body. I had less chakra but was psychically better off.

My eyes blurred, as chakra moved through the pathways inside me. I walked out of the house, and headed to the Hokage's office. People got out of my way, as I walked down the street. Several Anbu ninjas drew their weapons ready for a fight. 

Only a few tried to bar my path, and a little flex of my will had them walking out of the way. Genjutsu was quite useful.

I’d pulled on my internal energies hard as I could to support so many clones. Day in and day out. It felt good to let it settle. Later I’d pull my spiritual energy’s pressure back, most ninja naturally did it as an application of stealth. It was a subconscious thing for them.

Everyone who looked at me could tell with just a glance what I was, a highly trained ninja. A super powered killing machine. They all got a sense I was on a mission to right a wrong. 

I came to the building, the sun was up. The receptionist was the first to make a real effort to stop me.

“Sir you can’t go in there, the Hokage is in a meeting. If you’d just wait he’ll be right out.” she said standing in my way trying to physically keep me from advancing.

I looked at her, then at my watch. I grabbed her shoulders and picked her up and set her to the side.

I looked into her eyes like a man looking into a child's to tell them the bare truths of the world, “I waited for them to do the right thing. To live the Will of Fire, and apologize. To prove they were not an infection that needed to be removed.” 

She just stood there as I walked past, the Anbu feared me too much to stop me. I walked right into the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen sat there with Danzo and the elders. All around a table, with a map of the village. A glance was all it took to know everything. I was their obstacle to progress. Plans on reclaiming the Uchiha compound for economic growth laid bare before me. Turning my park into a training field, plans to swoop in on Uchiha businesses bringing them under them. 

I saw nothing but skeletons and ghosts. I walked up and sat down at an empty chair, placed there two days ago by one of my numerous summons.

“It's personal, but I take no pleasure in what's going to happen here.” I said, breaking the silence before the storm.

That was a lie I would enjoy it greatly, to be free of them. To have a wrong righted, to have some measure of atonement for my failure, it would be like having a un-scratchable itch simply vanish. If it didn't work, then I wouldn't enjoy resigning as chief of Police to focus my efforts of catching Itachi and Tobi. I'd need a few days to be in peak form, it would mainly be getting the rest of the Uchiha away, out of the splash zone.

Hiruzen stood up, hands halfway through a hand sign, Danzo shot away, trying to run, and then they disappeared. The elders followed them. With a wave of my hand, the Anbu hidden around the room revealed themselves. Weapons drawn, all of them looking at me to the empty seats as I stood up.

"Can't turn in a resignation with them gone," I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the hand written letter, Looking at the Anbu captain, "Y'all be lacking, but I'll let you off the hook this time, I got no idea where they went, fan out start searching." I commanded.

They gazed on with suspicion didn't approach to apprehend me. They had flinched when I said lacking, so easy to classically condition someone, when ethics don't matter. I found myself glad plan A worked, and plan B didn't have to be sprung. That the scorched earth plans didn't need to be considered. One of them grabbed the letter and read it. It could have been anyone of them with how distracted I found myself. 

"Resignation letter," "worried that your extensive use of clone Jutsu has," "yeah you are acting erratically." The one reading the letter said, summarizing the letter for the rest to hear.

She had a pretty voice, it might have been the euphoria of it actually working out. I knew where I sent them, the water pressure crushed them. If the water pressure didn't kill them, the lack of food would.

 

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I sat atop the Hokage mountain, smoke was rising up from the ground, yet no one could find all the fires. It was getting onto dark. I had thirty Anbu surrounding me yelling about the latest dark secret to be found as I drank from a flask. It was good mead, sweet and got me drunk. What idiot keeps written verifiable proof of the massacre of a major clan in their desk. The Third Hokage is who. Paper work really was their undoing, specifically accounting, they didn't even cook the books in an attempt to hide it.

Under several porn magazines was a folder called Operation Blood Drop. It was from Danzo to Hiruzen, detailing what was going on around turning Itachi against the Uchiha. Then there was the receipts for one Tobi to participate in culling dissidents. Best part Anbu found it, while I was directing a search to find where the Hokage was.

I felt the fool, such a long drawn out plan, and all I had to due was launch an investigation into the villages finances. There were several angles I could have justified it from. Tracking down missing Uchiha assets, finding drug smugglers, or just looking for more money. The budget just has to be cleaned up some time. Always follow the money, nothing gets done without it. If I had though they would had burned the books and written new ones. 

Root bases burned, orphaned children appeared in mass at orphanages all around the village. I hung them with their own ropes. Danzo gave me Root, too trusting in his information network, that was taxed till it cracked trying to keep track of me. 

Itachi, young as he was, was not an idiot, I would get him later. 

Hiruzen trusted his Anbu, his Anbu who were scared of me. It was basic training to know when one stood a chance and his Anbu who were not suicidal. The most loyal, all in the hospital with non lethal wounds. 

They all were distracted and trusted they knew what I was up to. They intercepted my letters outside the village, copied them for code breakers, they watched what I did every day all day. What they didn't see was the Genjutsu sent to a rat summon that detailed what the seal’ stamp had to look like. Not one realized how easy it was to find their clothes. How easy it was to have every piece stamped. Fuinjutsu cared only a bit about the ink, it had to be able to carry chakra at minimum, and that was it. A simple invisible ink, sold in every ninja simply shop. Only became visible when chakra flowed through it, and even then it was barely there a slight glow.

I didn't really care about the uninvolved, The majority of Anbu had no idea what was going to happen to the Uchiha. When the dust settled, they would find the majority of the Hokages personal Anbu were gone, they would find a great many missing. They didn't suffer, and they never saw it coming, that was what it meant to be a ninja. The best ninja operations were ones where the Target never knew anyone was there. 

The massive flashy Jutsu battles were a trap so many aspiring shinobi fell into. Part of it was the type of jobs the village took, acting as regular mercenaries. While the dust settled I was going to enjoy my drink, and wait for the Copy Ninja or the Green Beast to be called back from their missions, to see if they could beat the Daimyo back to the Leaf. I was now provisionally in charge of the Anbu. They had been ordered to help with the policing of the village, it was only natural they would continue to answer to me. The irony wasn't lost on me, they killed off the Uchiha to stop a coup. It wound up the very reason one happened.