Kaguya's Legacy

There was no sign of anything happening this night, not really. People went home as the shops closed, kids went to bed… and later, so did the adults.

Very few felt something unusual at all, and all those were smart enough to pretend not to see anything.

Even within the Uchiha clan, there weren't many who noticed anything was wrong. Only two people noticed; they noticed that, despite the late hour, neither of their sons had returned home yet.

Still, they weren't panicked, because they knew that, no matter what happened, their oldest would protect their youngest.

The rest of their clan knew nothing of what was coming. They weren't so different from their village, all trapped in the dark, unaware of what that darkness hid.

However, there was no darkness before the Byakugan; I saw it all.

ANBU patrol routes bent subtly away from the district. Root operatives took up positions along the outer perimeter. Silent. Efficient.

The cage was already built.

Then.

A flash of steel.

Red painting the ground.

Eyes widened in confusion as breath left lungs too quickly to scream. Hands twitched toward weapons that would never be drawn.

Itachi Uchiha moved like a ghost.

He did not challenge the clan openly. Even with the Mangekyō Sharingan, that would have been suicide. Grief and betrayal awaken power. If the clan had rallied, if Mangekyō bloomed across the district in response to slaughter, even he would have fallen.

So, Itachi didn't fight them head-on; he fought them like a true shinobi. He struck them while their guards were down, and he took advantage of the fact that they trusted him.

He knew their sentries, those keeping watch at night, and he killed them all, and without those to alert those who were sleeping, so began the reaping.

I tracked him as he moved silently from house to house. Many of the Uchiha were shinobi, so they woke up as he drew near. I could see them wake up before he put them back to sleep, permanently.

The very last thing they saw was the Sharingan of the young boy they had put their hopes and dreams on.

It was cruel indeed, Itachi, what a cruel and heartless boy.

And profoundly stupid.

Profoundly short-sighted.

For someone who wanted to protect the village he loved, he truly had no understanding of what that meant, no understanding of what it would do to the village's reputation to have an entire clan slaughtered in their sleep.

Who could sleep soundly after this?

Who would dare close their eyes?

If even the Uchiha could be killed in their sleep, then what hope did the civilians have?

Yes, this would stop a bloody battle. Konoha would win the battle, but would they win the war as well? That I didn't know.

Danzō likely didn't care about the consequences of this little plot of his; he always believed in power over everything else. He believed that as long as Konoha was strong enough, as long as he and his Root were strong enough, nothing else would matter.

Short-term stability for the sake of long-term benefits.

As I watched from my hiding place, I noticed that Itachi avoided areas with children, the elderly, and civilians. Even he wasn't enough of a monster to kill babes in their cribs.

And given that Danzō wanted those babies for his own purpose, I figured he hadn't tried very hard to force the poor boy to kill them… though even he likely didn't expect the depths of Itachi's madness, didn't expect that he would join forces with Obito to leave nothing behind.

Keeping track of Obito was harder than keeping track of Itachi. Obito could move around freely, cross the entire clan territory in an instant, while Itachi had to move from one building to the next.

That uncertainty was the only reason I hadn't yet moved. I needed to find the pattern to Obito's movements so I could avoid running into him.

At least until I was ready.

So, I waited.

So, I watched.

As the two of them continued to pile up the bodies.

After all, the Uchiha clan was vast, a village within a village… two thousand six hundred and eighteen.

That was the Uchiha clan, and that number was shrinking quickly.

Despite what I was, despite what I knew, I had to admit, it was painful to watch… so many innocent lives… all of my own blood, cut short in such a brutal manner… but I couldn't help them.

"There!" I exclaimed as I finally figured out Obito's pattern, the unconscious way he moved through the clan, how he picked the next house he would be paying a visit.

Despite how random it looked… humans here are terrible at random; they liked patterns far too much to continue to act randomly when doing something as repetitive as this.

As Itachi killed many of the clan's elites, Obito went and collected their eyes while they were still fresh.

And after finishing with that, he always picked a house to the right of him, likely something he did due to not having his left eye.

I took a deep breath and moved.

Silently, unseen, I glided across the ground, slipping past the holes in the Root and ANBU surveillance; without something like the Byakugan or Kaguya's Mind's Eye, they couldn't possibly detect me when I wanted to stay hidden.

Even sensors weren't perfect.

I reached a house on the outskirts of the Uchiha district, and two bodies lay near the entrance: a man and a woman. Both cut cleanly. Efficiently. Itachi's work. At the very least, he didn't let them suffer.

But the house wasn't empty; two more hearts still beat inside. A child, around five years of age, and a small girl, just barely past her first birthday, or so I estimated from her size.

She was my target.

The window put up no resistance; the trap was merely meant to alert the homeowners, but given that they were both dead… it hardly mattered.

Slipping inside the children's bedroom, I was careful not to wake either of them as I gently lifted the little girl into my arms. She stirred slightly, but thankfully didn't wake. I spared the older child a look… and then I slipped out as silently as I entered.

I moved to another house, one that had been visited by both Itachi and Obito, a house neither had a reason to return to. I gently placed the girl onto the long bed, adjusted the blanket around the sleeping infant, and pressed two fingers lightly to her forehead.

A whisper of chakra.

Not enough to harm.

Just enough to deepen sleep.

Then I vanished.

The next house had already been painted red.

The father had died with a kunai in hand.

The mother had been faster.

She had reached the hallway before Itachi's blade found her.

Two children remained in the back room.

The boy was three.

The girl still crawled.

The boy was awake.

Silent.

He stared at the doorway as I appeared, Sharingan barely flickering in his eyes—not awakened, not truly; they would go dormant again once his chakra ran out, but he wouldn't face much difficulty awakening them in the future.

A good seed. Talented. Maybe more so than Sasuke, who was seven years old and only reached the same level of activation himself.

I knelt.

"Do not make a sound," I told him softly.

He didn't.

Good child.

I placed two fingers on his forehead as well.

Sleep took him instantly.

I lifted the little girl into my other arm.

The next moment, the house was empty and still as the grave.

House after house, I arrived after Itachi, but before Obito. A few times, I arrived even before Itachi did; I had to be far more careful. Stealing the child from a mother's arms while she slept wasn't easy.

But those homes had no shinobi, just civilians of the Uchiha clan. They lacked the awareness needed to awaken.

At least before Itachi or Obito came knocking.

And I was betting that neither knew which homes had babies. They would notice at one point—Obito at least. Itachi was likely in too much pain to pay attention to such details.

But by the time Obito noticed what was happening, I would be done. It would be too late.

Slowly, the collection point began to fill; more and more sleeping bodies filled the bed, and it got to the point where I had to place the smallest on top of the biggest.

It wasn't great, but it had to do.

I was working with limited time and resources here.

Thankfully, a bit of chakra, and each child was trapped in a deep, dreamless sleep. They wouldn't remember this. I picked only those who were too young, those who held infinite potential, but limited danger.

Still… Obito wouldn't let them go, nor would the village… they needed a protector.

Mikoto was the best option; she was the clan head's wife, a jōnin, even if retired. But… her importance and position were also the reason I couldn't help this old friend of mine.

She understood that as well, which is why she never resisted despite knowing what was coming. The village… couldn't, wouldn't allow her to survive… too afraid of her, of what she might do.

So instead, I scanned the district once more.

The numbers had fallen drastically.

Where once thousands of chakra signatures pulsed within the Uchiha compound, now there were scattered embers.

Mikoto was still alive, but her heart was long dead. Fugaku, as well, still drew breath… a failure of a clan head… just awaiting death as his clan was killed off.

Other than those, there weren't any left of note, just the last few survivors who had survived so far on luck alone, simply alive due to it not being their time yet.

What I needed wasn't just anyone; I had a plan… and after a few moments of taking in the full picture, I finally found someone who fit the bill.