Raised by a Wild Horse Chapter 9

"Talking"

'Thinking'

In the Uchiha Section of town

"You know, Itachi, this is all very difficult to take in, isn't it?" Shisui asked as Itachi looked upon the histories depicted on a massive mural. After being escorted to a temple this was the last thing he'd expect to discover.

"Is it so hard to discover that the sharingan was created to cheat at pachinko?" The ability to predict the movements of those stupid metal balls was from generations of winners at pachinko inter-breeding.

"This… was not what I was expecting." That was the understatement of the millennia.

The murals along the walls showed depictions of the Uchiha histories which, at the earliest images, clearly depicted a progression of winning gamblers enjoying massive amounts of alcohol. Sure, after the great cataclysm, images showed how the Uchiha excelled at hunting and predicting animal behaviour.

'But gambling produced our powerful bloodline?' Itachi thought as he considered his clan as they were now.

Looking at the importance placed upon booze in the earlier images it might also explain how his sharingan had fully matured after sneaking some sake with his teammates after their first B ranked mission.

"I don't really like to dwell on how our bloodline started, but what it has gifted to us is truly exceptional." At the finish of his statement he seemed to fondly gaze upon the image of a deer being herded and killed by Uchiha hunters.

"Further down here we have the sealed scrolls of Madara. None have viewed the contents since the time of his betrayal to the village.. Many things have hinted at greater levels of our Doujutsu. Unfortunately, it seems that way lies madness." Shrugging in a 'what can you do' way, he finished the tour with a glass encased painting. It was the image of a beautiful, blond woman with long streamers of hair. She was hiding her lower face with a fan, and only her deep, blue, soul full eyes gazed at the observers.

The fan that was also found all around the clan's properties as it was the Uchiha symbol.

"Who is that?" Itachi asked in a strangely breathless manner.

"No one knows. Some believe her to be a distant ancestor that gave a new level of ability to our clan abilities. Others speculate that she was the true creator of ninjustu. Still others believe her to be the Queen of a Kingdom once spanning our entire solar system. No one truly knows."

Leaving the underground facility they moved to a large room where all of the older Uchihas were gathered. There were celebratory decorations covering the walls of the room. His parents were both waiting for him smiling. Even his father had the slightest up turn of his lips, it was surreal.

Later that evening after his clone dispelled Itachi had a great many things to mull over. His clone had, after both he and Hokage had viewed the party, fore went immediate dispelling. Instead they reviewed thoughts on the recent difficulties with their rival Great Five village. A recon team was sent to determine the validity of the Cloud Ninja abducting the Hyuuga heir. There report was conclusive. They were certain they'd seen the child from a distance, chained to the Raikage's carriage of all places.

The Hyuugas were crying for action. Several teams were being assembled for a surgical strike to retrieve the girl, but even now the situation was difficult, at best, even impossible at worst.

Thinking about how out of place the abduction of the Inuzuka tracker and her partner was Itachi came to the conclusion that some one had thrown them a bone. Apologizing to the Hokage for inappropriate, if accurate, turn of phrase they worked for about an hour considering all of the possibilities.

Every piece of information that had been reported was thoroughly analyzed, cataloged, and considered.

After waiting long enough for the Uchiha coming of age festival to finish, the clone dispelled with a slight pop and flash of smoke. The Hokage closed his eyes to block out the light from the low setting sun, and didn't even realize he'd fallen into a light doze. A few moments later a cough from the corner of the room brought him back to full awareness.

"Thank you Bear, you may leave to perform your other duties. I will be retiring for the rest of the evening." Stepping forward into the light a Bear masked ANBU bowed to the Hokage. After a moment of consideration, to the security of the room, the ANBU removed his mask.

"I have information for you old friend. My informants have given me the next likely destination for your targets." Teuchi the ramen chef handed the Hokage a file. Inside was a flier and two photographs.

"Noodle Country's food eating competition? I had two Akimichi attend last year and there was no report of young Naruto being in the area." The pictures were more enlightening.

"Genjutsu?" He asked himself as he examined a red head and a blond. Combined with the images of a dark haired man and a blond boy side by side the comparisons held some merit.

"Unknown. All that is known is that many women are extremely upset that the two girls won the contest last year and show minimal weight gain if any at all. From what I understand the Akimichi were hardly pleased either.

"I would think not. They have worked for quite some time to develop their physiology. While not yet a minor bloodline, it is a close call at this point. Another few generations could see it emerge as a bloodline." He then gestured to the photos of the winners.

"This could show that another family has already perfected a method to store calories in a much slimmer physique." Sarutobi examined the 'winners' of the contest. If his prodigious memory served him correctly, the winners of that competition ate nearly a half ton of food. It was quite literally nearly a half metric ton of food.

"Well, other than that I have only one other item to report sir." At this Teuchi appeared hesitant.

"Yes? Please proceed." Teuchi moved forward and placed a storage scroll on the desk.

"Some evidence was found late last night. It was pure chance that Sora Tama at the incinerator happened upon the scroll. He got his smock caught on the conveyer belt as it was approaching the flames. They shut the machinery down, and freed him. Some items were knocked from the belt. As the clean up commenced they found this." Sarutobi eyed the scroll curiously.

"What importance have you ascribed to this scroll?"

"Sir, upon reading the label identifying the stored… items we felt an investigation was warranted. Upon careful analysis of the chakra used in the seal the forensics have conclusive results."

"Stop stalling. Simply tell me what this is about." The Hokage laid his pipe on the desk, and gazed seriously at his old warrior friend.

"We have found the remains of Kana Inuzuka and her partner Irichiru. Both, according to the tests, were killed, roasted, and stripped of their flesh. The gnawing on the bones is consistent with the teeth of a nearly grown human. The Chakra signature, while faint, is indicative of an Uchiha."

The Hokage, Leader of the Leaf, The Professor, acknowledged as nearly unbeatable even in these twilight years, felt faint as that information processed.

Appearing much calmer than he was, the old man pushed a button on his desk intercom. Calmly he asked his secretary to schedule a meeting with Itachi Uchiha for the rest of the next day. Once the message was sent to the Uchiha compound the aging Hokage turned to scowl at the ANBU that had brought such horrendous news.

"Go home. I don't want to see you unless there is some sort of phenomenally good news. Tomorrow I have to take action in regards to the Hyuuga case, and at this point I'm ready to go myself to get out of the mess that is here in the village." Bowing, the aging spymaster left with his mask firmly replaced on his face.

Hinata awoke to the loud sounds of water falling nearby. Adjusting her position she found her bonds completely gone.

'Have we finally arrived someplace where they don't fear I might try to escape?' She asked her self as she felt around the area. Fortunately, it seemed the overwhelming pain of her missing eyes had dulled to only a light throb.
Bandages still wound around her head. Feeling her way around the area she was in revealed the room was of a moderate size with a futon, which she had been laying on, and a small dresser filled with clothing. The clothing she was wearing felt like linen and was cut in a pajama type style.

Feeling the coarser fabric of the clothing in the dresser she determined they were roughly her size. The pants were easy to slip into, but it took some work to determine that the belt was intended to keep the tunic closed. The togs at the sleeve cuffs were also unusual.

Cinching the belt around her waist she moved to examine the window and door. The window was small. Possibly large enough to squeeze through, but there was no way to determine how far above the ground the room was located.

Sounds of fighting were drifting in through the window, nearly drowned out by the sounds of crashing water. Having never seen a water fall before it took some time to come to the conclusion that that was what she was hearing. The door was solid wood with a metal handle that turned freely. She hadn't been locked up?

Carefully moving down a short hallway and down a flight of stairs, Hinata took care to make as little sound as possible. Even as silent as she was it took little time for someone to notice her.

"Hey! Hime-chan is awake! Urk!" A loud voice came from some distance away.

'Urk?' Thought Hinata before something skidded to a halt. Soft hair gently brushed her shins as someone's head shook to clear itself.

"Hey, Mama, that's not fair! I was distracted," shouted a loud voice from the ground at her feet!

"Fair? Hah! Don't talk about fair to me brat." A woman's voice floated from a distance away. How far had the boy flown?

"Good morning, Princess, how are you feeling today." Hinata jumped at the voice beside her that had sounded so far away just a few seconds previously.

"I'm sorry? Wh-h-ho are you?" Hinata asked unsettled by the strange situation.

"I'm Saotome Naruto, and that's my Mom." The boy responded.

"Naruto, she has bandages covering her eyes. She can't see what you are doing." answered the woman with a sigh at the boy's antics..

"We rescued you from that stupid bandit king, battled our way through ninja, and brought you back to our castle." Naruto babbled what he considered the story.

"In other words we surprised the caravan, grabbed you, evaded a couple of losers, and brought you with us to…" She took a moment to continue, "I'm pretty sure this is River country."

"Pret-t-ty sure?" asked the confused girl.

"Yeah, got a couple places set up to stay when we manage to find them. I got an ability that acts up every now and then. It is useful as it lets me travel to other places real quick. Have some trouble with the control sometime." What she didn't say was the c-c-c- demon startled her, and having grabbed Naruto after he'd launched his attack. Well they got 'lost' real quick.

"Than-k-k you for rescuing me, but I don't know if-f-f it will help me-e-e. Without my eyes I-I am useless." The girl seemed to shrink into her self as her thoughts turned inward.

"Well, it's a good thing this knuckle head was about your size then. A bit of a shrimp, but hey, you seem to be alright. Let's take off those bandages and get a look." This shocked Hinata from her self recriminations.

"Wha-t-t are you talking ab-b-bout?" Hinata felt nothing but suddenly the bandages simply fell to the ground. The ground she could see!

Unfortunately, this course of events was a little too much for the child.

Ranma caught the girl before she touched the ground in a faint. With Naruto bouncing around asking if the girl was alright the elder Saotome wondered what kind of trouble this would bring her little family.

Konoha: Early Morning

"The council wishes to do the expedient thing." Hyuuga Hiashi as he and his brother spoke in the dark.

"Assassination? And you will abide by this? You would allow them to kill your own daughter out of convenience?" Hizashi asked in a calm voice covering a raging emotional core.

"The council believes this is the correct course of action. The main branch members seem to be in consensus as there is a 'spare' heir." Hiashi replied back emotionlessly.

"I can't believe I'm hearing you say this. Hiroko would be rolling over in her grave to hear you speak so coldly about your own daughter. Hiroko fought for the branch house against the high and mighty main branch. How many skilled fighters are members of the vaunted Main Branch? Only you have any of the higher skills, Hiashi. Each and every branch member would be tracking down Hinata-hime right now if the council didn't fear losing their power over them. I..." At this point Hizashi was stopped mid rant by his brother placing his hand in a hand seal.

Awaiting the pain of the caged-bird seal, that never came. Hizashi watched as his brother performed a second seal. With the second seal completed Hiashi bit into his thumb and swiped the blood across his brother's uncovered brow. Slowly the cage-bird seal dissipated until only unblemished flesh remained.

"Gather all of the branch members and follow the same method. This is in exchange for rescuing my daughter, Hizashi," Hiashi moved to leave the room, "Please, bring her back to me."

Nodding to his brother, Hizashi left the room to begin unsealing the rest of the branch family. The branch family was nearly three times the size of the Main . Once they were free from the seal… they would not be subjugated again. Later that next day a small army of Hyuuga, some seventy-five well trained ninja and assorted tracking teams left the village with the Hokage's blessings.

Cloud wanted the Hyuuga eyes? Well the village hidden in the clouds would be haunted by those eyes for a great many years once the battles were done.

To be continued

Thought? Questions that I may or may not be obliged to answer with regards to the story? Happy Valentines Day!