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Arc 3, [Truth]

Part I

It's been three days.

Three days since the impostor had replaced her, three days since her entourage had unknowingly abandoned her. For those three days, she had no choice but to trudge along the rugged path to Konohagakure, a battered compass as her only companion.

By the dawn of the third morning, she was beyond exhausted. But, her journey was coming to an end. Draped in victorious dawn-reds and daybreak-yellows, the famous gates of Konoha drew ever closer, beckoning her with the promise of safety. The sight of her destination fueled her on. It won't be long now.

But she must hurry. The sand in her hourglass was trickling away. She was at her physical and mental limit. If she doesn't reach Konoha in time, if she doesn't warn them...she tried not to think of what would happen.

And she must hurry, because she was the real one.

The mission was going well.

As promised by Gatō, a lavishly painted ferry awaited them at the docks of Kuzuryū. Despite the early hour, the docks were already teeming with merchants and sailors. Their party of ten had shove and push their way through the hubbub. In contrast, their ship cut across the dappled water like a sharpened kunai through flesh.

Having never been on the open sea before, Sakura was transfixed by the capricious ocean and the salty breeze. However, she failed to notice two cloaked figures that trailed them in a small rowboat, hidden in the hazy morning mist.

On land, a horse-drawn carriage met them. They journeyed through marshland and villages filled with dead-eyed villagers that stared blankly at the grandeur of their carriage. Sakura noticed the hunger glinting in their sunken eyes and the emptiness of their food stalls, but not the two cloaked figures silently zigzagging through the roofs and trees behind them.

As they came to a halt in front of Gatō's enormous stronghold, Sakura turned to help Kaori out of the carriage. She noticed that the heiress's hand was shaking, but missed the unsettlingly expression on her face.

Unlike most first-time beholders of Konoha's pride and glory, she bypassed the gates without even a slight pause in admiration. Traffic was slow before sunrise, so the guards naturally noticed her.

"Oi! Security check over here!" Kotetsu waved her over, his morning grogginess gone. There was wealth hidden berneath layers of grime and damage on her robes, and her posture was impeccable despite her obvious lack of sleep and food.

Next to him in the booth, Izumo tracked her approach with a half-open eye. He was used to Kotetsu's ubiquitously loud greetings, but this woman was different. He knew they were both thinking the same thing- her appearance did not match her identity.

That was never a good thing.

As a courier led them to the reception room, Gai-sensei and the older genin snuck away to spread out throughout the stronghold, leaving behind flimsy but effective clones. Before Tenten left, Sakura grabbed the older girl by the wrist, raising a pink brow in question.

Once the brunette deciphered Sakura's intent, her confusion morphed into slight amusement. "I'll be fine," she mouthed. "Good luck to you."

Satisfied, Sakura let go with a nod. With a powerful spring, Tenten launched herself up. The brunette flipped in midair to land on the ornate mosaic ceiling in an impressive acrobatic display. Then, she crawled away nimbly and quietly, like a spider. Sakura glanced forward- the courier had no idea of what had just occurred.

The reception room was lavish, almost overly so, with flashily carved columns and windows screened with silk. Gatō, an unimpressively short and portly man, was lounging on a sofa at the center of the room. Two beefy guards flanked him, and Sakura could tell they were obviously not shinobi. How stupid. Sakura almost rolled her eyes at his negligence.

"Which one is she?" The businessman demanded, sitting up slightly from his reclining position. Sakura had to physically restrain herself from wincing- dear god, his voice sounded like someone grating two metal poles together.

"My lord," Kaori bowed, the elaborate jewels in her hair catching the Sunlight prettily. At this, Gatō rose to his full five feet and waddled towards the bowed princess.

"Get up," Gatō grunted, adjusting his Sunglasses. "Please," He added. Only then did Kaori follow his order. "Let's not waste anymore time, Kaori. Where's your dowry?"

"I refuse to give a single coin to a man who has yet to bow to his wife and properly introduce himself."

For a long time, Gatō stared at her. Frowning, he finally bowed grudgingly. "Gatō. It is a pleasure to finally meet my betrothed."

What a severe case of arrogance. Sakura noted. And social ineptitude.

Kaori appraised him with steely blue eyes before motioning for her servants. Sakura moved to stand behind her. Lee and Neji's clones deposited the first armored chest at Gatō's feet. The small man lumbered forward and kicked one shiny leather shoe on top the top of the chest, propping himself up. Then, spitting on his thumb, Gatō swiped a hand across the lacquered surface of the lock-

And disappeared in a puff of paper-scented fuuinjutsu smoke.

With one final wobbling step, the woman lurched to a stop before the two guards.

"Woah lady, are you okay?" Kotetsu leapt over the counter to steady her. Izumo rose, all notions of feigning sleep forgotten. He recognized the woman, but she wasn't supposed to be here.

"You are-" Izumo began, but he was cut off.

"Kaori of the Land of Fire," she said weakly. "Your shinobi are guarding an imposter."

With that, she slumped forward.

Shit! Gatō just activated a transportation seal! Sakura paled at the implications. For Gatō- a civilian to use a seal of that caliber, he had to be informed beforehand. Why did Kaori's chest have a seal that helped Gatō escape?

However, there was no time to think on that. Gatō's guards were rushing towards them. Acting fast, Sakura whipped out two mission-grade kunai and launched them towards the bulky duo. To her satisfaction, she hit vital points, and spurts of crimson erupted from the embedded weapons. But, instead of slumping to the ground, the guards disappeared with a loud pop, blood and all.

Sakura cursed inwardly. Clones! That means there's other ninja here!

"Kaori! Stay behind us!" Sakura barked. She and the rest of her team, some clones and others still under a henge, moved into a circle formation around their client. Suzume slinked in to stand behind her mistress, drawing her tantō.

"Stay calm, team." Kakashi said levelly, pushing up his crooked headband to reveal a scarred eye. "Be on alert. Gatō's probably far away now. We've been tricked. There's another party involved here."

The mission was not going well.

"Stop."

The word was spoken with such authoritative confidence that the two cloaked figures obeyed, stopping at the doors of the reception room. They turned in tandem towards the baritone voice, heavy black robes swishing.

"There is important business being conducted in their right now." Hashirama continued, emerging from the shadowed curve of a hallway, chakra pulsing ominously. "I would be happy to speak to you instead."

At the Shodai's appearance, the taller of the two removed his conical hat in a gesture that bordered reverence. "Ah, the resurrected Hokage himself! What a pleasure. The rumors are true, then." The absence of the hat revealed a face more shark than human, with razor-sharp teeth, and slanted gills on gray-blue skin. "I told you this was going to be interesting, Itachi."

At his name, Itachi discarded his hat as well, uncovering an intimidating crimson gaze. "Hello, Senju Hashirama." He addressed with a shallow bow, sharingan spinning.

Surprisingly, the God of Shinobi returned his greeting with a polite nod. "Uchiha? You must be the one who slaughtered your entire clan." Hashirama mused, averting his gaze from the Sharingan as he advanced towards the two. "It's tragic that the last of the great Uchiha clan are all gathered here under one roof, all on different sides."

"There are only two of us left." Itachi voiced.

Hashirama chuckled, closing his eyes in preparation. Kisame drew the oversized sword on his back, and Itachi raised a single polished finger. "Whatever you say. Now come, I haven't been in a proper fight in awhile."

Sasuke Uchiha shuddered violently as he felt that chakra again. His neck nearly snapped as he jerked his head towards the source. It has been five years since he had last felt it, and it was five years too soon to feel it again.

"Itachi," he half-breathed, half-snarled. He was here, the traitor was here. Oh God, if only he could run outside right now-

"Itachi?" Kakashi echoed, alarmed. "Are you certain, Sasuke?"

The only answer of confirmation Kakashi received was Sasuke taking a step forward, dropping his henge as one of the mist guards. Then another, and another-

"Sasuke, I'm warning you. I have no idea why he's here, but Hashirama should be taking care of him, seeing that he's not-"

"Itachi. Is. Here." Sasuke choked out. His expression was somewhere between malevolence and desperation.

"Sasuke," Kakashi repeated, with more force. "Stop. You of all people should know how dangerous your brother is. You will not survive in a fight against him. Stay here and stick to the mission."

"Fuck the mission!" Sasuke yelled. Kakashi caught a glimpse of the crazed look in his eyes as he took off towards the doors.

"Sasuke!" Naruto and Sakura shouted simultaneously. But their teammate was long gone, consumed by rage and revenge-fueled thirst.

Just as Kakashi was about to convince himself to pursue the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha, Suzume brushed past him in brisk steps.

"Suzume-chan?" Kaori asked as her life-long friend left her side. "What are you...?"

"You stay, Hatake-san," Suzume interrupted. "Kaori, it was a pleasure serving you."

"What are you-" Kakashi's mind momentarily stopped working as the charcoal-haired woman turned around.

Her eyes- they were red.

Kakashi swore they'd definitely been a normal, safe shade of brown before. But now, they were undoubtedly the signature crimson of Konoha's most famous dōjutsu; one that only he and Sasuke and that man right outside those doors should have.

But there they were, stuck in her skull, surrounded by a plethora of other Uchiha-esque features. As Kakashi reeled with shock, her Sharingan began spinning- revealing another hidden surprise. Instead of three, she possessed four tomoes in each eye. The extra one was misshapen, as if someone had poked a fourth hole in her eye and carelessly dumped ink into it.

Kakashi felt nauseous. "Who...what are you?" He asked, feeling his voice waver. A survivor of the Massacre? A long-exiled ex-memeber?

"Now, you understand." Suzume quipped, leaving in pursuit of the wayward Uchiha.

The Shodai lived up to his title as Madara Uchiha's rival.

The missing-nins' partnership was tested to the limits as they fought the Senju legend. With Kisame as the frontline brawler and Itachi as the long-range jutsu dispenser, Hashirama managed to not only stay out of the Samehada's range, but also dodge flurry after flurry of brutal Fire and Water jutsu combinations with practiced ease. He managed all of this without a single glance towards his opponents.

After five minutes, the floor was covered in a shallow puddle of water from both Itachi's elaborate attempts at binding water-ribbons and Kisame's violent knock-out waves. They're trying to capture me, Hashirama realized. The jutsus they've been using are intended to subdue, not kill or maim.

Having enough of the elemental techniques, Itachi casted a layered high-class balance-disrupting genjutsu towards the Shodai, but it was shrugged off within milliseconds.

However, Hashirama's millisecond of distraction was enough time for Kisame to quietly slip four dark balls of pigment into the water. Dark ink diffused across the water's surface. As Kisame's violent attacks resumed, Itachi began to manipulate the ink.

"This is child's play compared to my spars with Madara!" The Shodai jested. The dark-haired man grinned, bringing his left arm up in a heaving motion. A block of wood shot up from underneath Kisame's feet, spraying water everywhere. The Swordsman fumbled at the Hokage's first real attempt at retaliation, and landed in a splash of water.

Taking advantage of the momentary lapse in Kisame's attacks, Hashirama ran through a maddeningly quick sequence of hand seals and slammed his hands on the floor. There was a faint rumble before four walls of wood shot up around both Itachi and Kisame. Thinking fast, the S-class ninja each tossed a kunai towards each other, and replaced themselves with the weapons before the pillars could entrap them. As the S-class duo landed beside each other, another set of pillars rose around them, forcing them apart.

"Then I'm assuming you're having fun." Itachi responded as he evaded another set of pillars. With one final current for adjustment, he finished up his ink manipulations. He caught Kisame's gaze from across the lobby, and the ex-Konoha-nin nodded, giving his signal.

Kisame leapt into a high arc, weaving with surprising grace through vines that grappled at him. The Swordsman reached into his weapon's pouch, pulling out three sheafs of paper.

That rustle...it must be paper...why do they have paper? Seals? Explosion tags? What do they plan on doing with those? Hashirama mused, eyes still shut as he sent out vines to grab at Itachi, whose movements he felt through the ground.

As the strongest water jutsu yet headed his way, Hashirama was forced to break contact with the ground. He barely evaded the thick jet of water, feeling droplets brush against his sleeve as he twirled out of the way. The jet hit the opposing wall in an explosion of water, cracking the tiled surface, the impact sending tremors throughout the entire building.

Hashirama chanced at glance at the ground, feeling something under his feet as he regained his footing- and immediately realized his mistake.

He'd been quarreled into the middle of the flooded hallway, standing in the only dry spot. Around him, the water was dyed a murky black with an over-sized seal. Realization dawned upon him. They'd slipped ink into the water when he'd been hit with the genjutsu.

Shit. I can't move, or else I'll disrupt the seal array and trigger any hidden effects. If it wasn't already set I can still escape, but...With a quick scan, Hashirama concluded that the array was an immobilization seal.

He still had some consolation, however- Kisame and Itachi had no way to activate the seal. They were both stuck where they stood, far away from him. If they moved, they'd disrupt the array. He'd done quite a bit of Fuuinjutsu with Mito in his time, and he knew the only way to activate this seal was by inserting chakra into the three boxes that surrounded his dry spot, which-

Oh, shit. The paper! Three pieces of them, floating on top of the three ink boxes. They were mirror seals, each tethered to another seal so that the user can transmit chakra from one to another from a long distance.

Hashirama moved to disable them, but it was too late. The paper glowed with potent blue and dark violet chakra, and the God of Shinobi fell as the gigantic seal sequence around him flared to life.

Sasuke was trapped.

Someone-probably Itachi, that smart bastard- had set a genjutsu on the door.

When he barged through the them, he found himself in a never-ending pitch-black darkness. An unreachable light hovered just above his head. It was rather bland for a genjutsu, but Sasuke had to admit it was well-created. All of his senses were successfully deprived, so there was no way he could find a loophole, a mistake to exploit and break out of this. He could also feel himself slowly going insane from that annoying light.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have the Sharingan right now?"

The Uchiha ignored the voice. It was just part of the genjutsu. With an aggravated sigh, he closed his eyes, flushing chakra through his system. For most visually-oriented genjutsu, the victim's eyes need to be open in the material world in order to be affected by the jutsu.

"That's not going to work, without the eyes."

"Why not?" Sasuke demanded. For a genjutsu, the voice sure was annoying.

"Because I casted it." What?

Sasuke leapt up into a defensive stance, pulling out a weapon. He let out a small gasp as his eyes met the gaze of the two burning orbs of red floating in front of him. Itachi?

"I'm not your brother." A sigh. The darkness faded.

For a moment the entire world was suspended in white, and Sasuke felt his blood churn to shards of ice as he realized that the disembodied Sharingan belonged to a very familiar woman.

"Suzume?" Beyond flabbergasted, Sasuke was incapable of saying anything else.

The guard gave him a tired smile. There was a blur of color as the scene around them shifted, painting a mental image of a building in Konoha that Sasuke was too familiar with.

"The compound..." Sasuke breathed.

They were in one of the more secluded training courtyards, one that no outsiders had access to. Every tree, every dummy, and even the odd little shack where everyone stored equipment were in place. Sasuke couldn't find a single irregularity. In the clearing, there were several people training. They all looked like Uchiha clansmen, but Sasuke didn't recognize any of them.

They all looked so alive, so normal. This must be a memory, Sasuke realized. Suzume's memory. All of the pent-up tension and fear and burning anger disappeared, replaced with a brew of emotions even more conflicting and confusing.

Sasuke felt something wet streaking down his cheeks.

Feeling numb, he reached up and felt his face- he was crying. For a long time he just stood there and watched the dark-haired men and women train, smiling and bantering with each other. It's been years since he'd been so emotionally overwhelmed.

He turned to the woman who had elicited such a strong response from him. "You-" Sasuke clenched his jaw together when he heard the hiccuping shakiness in his voice. This is so humiliating. He wiped viciously at his tears.

"Let's have a seat," Suzume gestured towards one of the benches. "There's a lot I need to tell you."

"Hashirama," Sakura wheezed, eyes widening. She swayed, cradling her head in her palm as paralyzing chakra sizzled through her body. "Kakashi-sensei...Hashirama's down...they're coming..."

Kakashi paled.

The double doors swung open. One smirking Hoshigake Kisame entered, catching Sakura's fear-filled eyes. If this guy beat Hashi-sensei, then...The pink-haired genin clenched her fists, still recovering from the dizzying pain.

The ex-Mist-nin chuckled at her terror, beady eyes boring into her own. "You're next, kid."

Tenten noticed the distress seal on the inside of her wrist when it sent pulses of chakra up her arm. It was a variation of the mirror seal, intended to transfer only small amounts of chakra to alert the receiver discretely. Her family's weapons store carried them. Sakura must've slapped one on her when she caught her wrist earlier. Tenten allowed herself a proud smile. The younger kunoichi was learning.

"Gai-sensei! They're calling for backup!" She shouted, dodging through the attacks of the merchandaries around her. There must've been hundreds of them, barricading the entrance to Gato's stronghold.

"OUR YOUTHFUL COMRADES CALLS US TO BATTLE?" Gai exclaimed, tunneling through the crowd like a green bowling ball. "AH! MY RIVAL HAS ALERTED ME AS WELL!"

"But how are we gonna get there? There's millions of them!" Tenten hollered, kneeing one of her opponents in the crotch and slicing the arm off another with a sharpened dagger.

"JUST SHOW THEM YOUR YOUTH!" Gai chirped. A shroud of blue chakra suddenly surrounded him. With a battle cry, the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha sprinted through the army of hired hands and straight into the doors, leaving a Gai-shaped hole in the wood.

Tenten sighed and followed her eccentric sensei.

"My name is Uchiha Suzume, second daughter of Uchiha Seijuru and Uchiha Sarume. I am 30 years old, and I left Konohagakure 13 years ago."

"Why did you leave?" Sasuke asked. He'd stopped crying awhile ago, and he felt strangely serene.

"I was forced to." Suzume deadpanned.

Sasuke glanced at the woman sitting beside him on the bench- she looked tired beyond her 30 years. He returned to observing the scene playing out in front of them. In her memory, some faces were more detailed than others. There was one in particular that Sasuke identified, a small boy who was practicing his katas alone under the shade of a plum tree. His face was blurry, but Sasuke would've recognized those deep stress lines anywhere.

"You probably already saw them, but yes, I do have an extra tomoe in each of my Sharingan." Suzume paused. "I was experiment #13004."

Sasuke took a deep breath, watching as the little boy ran through a series of hand seals, spitting out a mouth full of fire. "Whose experiment?"

"Who else? Orochimaru's." The scene before them momentarily darkened, mimicking Suzume's tone. "He tried adding a forth tomoe to replicate Senjutsu. It failed, and now I have annoying two annoying blindspots."

Sasuke was slightly taken back by how blunt she was about it.

"Orochimaru disposed of me as a failure, knowing that my genome was so altered that I couldn't reproduce offspring with viable Sharingan for his breeding experiments. I couldn't return to the clan. If I did, they would execute me for treason and for giving out information to outsiders. So, the only choice I had was to leave."

"And you decided to become Kaori's guard?"

"You'd be surprised how easily nukenin are hired."

"You're a nukenin? Then how come you're not in the bingo books?" Sasuke was sure he would've noticed if there was more than one entry under the Uchiha section.

"To Konoha, I'm still MIA, presumably KIA. My records were probably tossed out a long time ago, though, like all the others before me."

Sasuke swore he felt his heart temporarily stop beating. Others...

"So...there's other...other people, other Uchiha like you out there? Roaming the lands, guarding nobility?" Sasuke worded tentatively, feeling light-headed.

"I won't be surprised. I haven't tried contacting them, though. But now that I've found you-" Suzume choked in mid-sentence, her body tensing up. Her midsection jutted forward, as if someone had stuck a sword through her stomach. Alarmed, Sasuke leaped away from her, pulling out a weapon.

Suddenly, the peaceful scenery of the genjutsu world shattered. The broken shards fell away, revealing the material world. Sasuke found himself standing in a flooded hallway, with Suzume at an arm-distance, a long blade pierced through her convulsing ribcage and dark blood bubbling out of her open mouth.

Behind her, gripping the lethal weapon, was Uchiha Itachi.

"Hello, otouto."

Sasuke screamed.

Kakashi was losing. On the outside, he appeared calm as he returned Kisame jutsu for jutsu and avoided the touch of the Sword-nin's chakra-hungry blade. In reality, Kisame's relentless endurance was allowing him to slowly gain on the older shinobi, who was being overexerted by the use of his Sharingan.

Sakura prayed that the other half of their team would come to their aide soon, and that Sasuke was safe with Suzume. Little did she know, her prayers were too late. There was a rustle of cloth behind her, and Sakura turned to check on Kaori-

...who wasn't there.

Instead, an unnatural, corpse-white man stood in Kaori's place, grinning to reveal a mouth of checkered black and white teeth. The entire right half of his body was deformed, almost as if he'd been melted. Sakura opened her mouth to alert her teammates, but white tendrils of flesh bursted out of the man's deformed right side and wrapped around her mouth. More tendrils soon followed- one around her eyes, one around her limbs.

"You were all fools." The childish, high-pitched voice of the deformed man whispered in her ear as he drew her towards him. Then, he plunged into the ground with his captive, successfully completing his portion of the mission.

A.N.: Suzume was a bit cliché, but come on. I'd put several hints in the previous chapter, and the Uchiha were a big ass clan. Not everyone would've stayed in Konoha. There'd bound to be some who'd left before the Massacre.

So, what did you think?