The Fateful Uchiha

Sasuke was still in a coma. Jun didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t normal to be in this state after a Genjutsu. However, Itachi had used the Tsukuyomi on his little brother. The kid would never be the same when he woke up… if he woke up. Jun was looking forward to facing Sasuke. To confirm to him that it wasn’t a dream and that his whole family was gone. To tell him he will be living with strangers.

The transition was going to be difficult. Jun didn’t know how to comfort children. Izumi had inherited their mom’s patience and gentleness, but she also had her own grief to deal with. Being there for Itachi’s little brother was probably the last thing she wanted to do. Karin, Neji, and Kazuma only saw Sasuke as an intruder of their age who came to mess up their dynamic. They were already showing signs of jealousy without having met him. But there was nothing the teenager can do about it now. All he could do was wait for Sasuke to wake up.

The hours passed slowly. They all slept at Hazuki’s apartment that night. Jun had already terminated his lease and moved Karin's and his belongings from where they used to stay.

The next day, they buried Hazuki next to Renzo, their father. There were four times as many people at her funeral as at the cremation of the entire Uchiha clan. For Jun, the pain of losing his mother did not ease. He decided to throw himself into work. He looked for a new house. With his new status as a clan leader, he found one they liked in less than a day.

It was a huge residence made up of three big houses, connected to each other. The building was located in the neighboring district of the Akimichi, with a garden planted with trees in the back. They would have more space than what they needed, but they could easily afford it. Izumi could have her own house, just like Karin, if they want more independence. After getting Kazuma’s approval, per their deal, Jun signed the necessary paperwork.

Three days had passed since the massacre. Sasuke had yet to wake up. Time seemed to pass both too quickly and agonizingly slowly. Jun’s family moved to their new residence. Jun took the main house with Karin, while Izumi took the one on their right with Kazuma. The third house remained empty for now.

Jun went to the Uchiha District next. The ANBUs had cleaned the area. There were no blood stains or weapons planted on the walls. But there were still traces of what happened. There were broken windows and doors…The teenager hadn’t set foot here in years, but he kept the memory of a lively place. Now, it was a ghost town.

“Should we be here?” Natsumi said nervously.

“Jun is the authority on the matter. Unless it’s you, Shiba-sensei?” Susumu said with a grimace.

Shiba Arata made a funny face, glancing briefly at Jun. Even as the Chief of Police, it was pretty obvious he didn’t feel comfortable being in the Uchiha District. Jun smiled at them.

“Come on guys, I need your help.” He said.

Jun didn’t have the courage to come alone, so he brought his comrades along. Shiba, Susumu, Natsumi, Kanna, Anko, Yugao, and Gai were present. He would have asked Miyamoto but involving the Hyuga in an Uchiha affair didn’t seem like a good idea. He had almost asked Iruka, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Iruka may be a ninja, but he had barely experienced the gruesome nature of their work.

His heart was still soft. Talking about the massacre in front of him had enough to make his whole face change color. He hadn’t even been close to the clan. It was just his nature, full of empathy. But Jun had enough people, even without Iruka.

“Let’s get to work. I’ll provide you with Storage scrolls. Please pair up. Each team takes a house and collects everything in it that needs to be saved. If we hurry, we can finish everything today.” The teenager said.

He gave them a bunch of storage scrolls. Each meant to hold a certain type of item such as jewelry, decorations with the emblem of the clan, documents, weapons, clothes, money, books… His friends paired up and tackled the task. Shiba, Kanna, Yugao, and Anko even created a clone to form two additional teams.

Jun went straight to the Nakano shrine by the river of the same name. He had never been there when he had lived with the Uchihas. But his memories told him that it was a significant monument for the clan. The place also held the secret meeting place of the Uchihas. He explored the places and found a few summoning contracts and old scrolls on display.

Then trusting his memory, he located the seventh tatami mat from the far right and lifted it. It was a secret door leading to a basement. There was a stone monument with the clan’s secrets. Jun wasn’t quite sure what was supposed to be written on it, but he knew the message had to do with the Sharingan and had inspired Madara with his crazy plan of putting the whole world under a Genjutsu. The teenager didn’t try to decipher the message with his Dojutsu. Instead, he lifted the tablet from the ground with a small Doton technique and seal it in one of his storage scrolls.

The Nakano shrine was going to be closed. Konoha respected things of the past; therefore, the shrine will not be destroyed. But it would cease to be maintained and the surrounding land would be used for something else. It wasn’t the Uchiha District anymore. But as the clan leader, Jun had a duty to preserve the relics of the Uchiha ancestors. It was their legacy.

The teenager raided Fugaku’s house. The ANBU had already taken everything in Itachi’s room, but the rest was intact. Jun took the previous clan leader’s documents as well as Sasuke’s clothes and toys. Moreover, he found a couple of summoning scrolls, an ancient Katana, and a large family tree tracing the lineage of Fugaku and Mikoto, Itachi’s and Sasuke’s mother. Jun took all the cash he could get his hands on. There was also a small jewelry box belonging to Mikoto. The teenager put it in his pocket. He would give it to Sasuke one day.

Jun went to Shisui’s house afterward. It was empty. He didn’t linger too long. He then began to go to the houses his friends had been to, making sure they didn’t forget to take anything important or valuable. The looting operation took them all day. They met at the entrance to the District late that evening with the storage scrolls. Their mood was somber. When they left, it was obvious none of them wanted to set foot there again until the place was completely razed.

The young clan leader went home and began sorting through the recovered objects. He wasn’t alone. Izumi and Shikaku, who had volunteered to assist him with his new responsibilities, were helping. The various jewelry was sorted to be resold or kept. The weapons were organized in the same way. The money was obviously kept.

Ancient trinkets and artifacts were only a handful; all of them were preserved. The manuals on history, Genjutsu, and Ninjutsu were divided between what Jun intended to keep and what he wanted to donate to the Konoha Library. The teenager found the clan accounts among the Fugaku’s documents. He tackled the heavy task of settling the last debts of the Uchihas.

Jun saved the summoning contracts for last. Summoning a creature had a mystical and marvelous side to it. The Jutsu had always fascinated shinobis, and the teenager was curious to see if he could sign a contract, or offer one to a member of his family.

“There are seventeen contracts, that’s a lot,” Izumi said.

Shikaku scanned the pile and then turned to Jun.

“There must be one from Fugaku, which traditionally goes to the clan leader. You can also sign a second one, but I’d advise you to contract with the one for the clan leader first.”

Jun raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had no idea. He rummaged through the pile until he found the scrolls he brought from the clan leader’s house. One of the two scrolls was thin, but the second one was heavy and thick. The paper was both chakra-soaked and cracked with age. It must have dated from the era of the clan wars or maybe before. The border was richly decorated with dark red, blue, and black colors. He could easily imagine that kind of contract in the hands of Fugaku or even his predecessors… Maybe even Madara! Jun greedily opened it flat on the ground. Shikaku and Izumi were watching over his shoulders. The teenager stopped his movement, his eyes fixed on the title.

“Summoning… cats? Is this a joke?”

Well, he had nothing against cats. They were cute, but it was quite lacking for a clan leader summoning. He had hoped for something more badass.

“The Uchiha clan leader has always held that contract. It dates from before the creation of Konoha. It has little use in combat. Well, none of the Uchihas clan leaders had used it to fight. It’s more of a symbol. This contract is tied to the cat-shinobis territory. They produce weapons and sometimes request missions from Konoha.” Shikaku informed him a little amused.

Jun vaguely remembered something from the story of Naruto. Team 7 had been sent on a mission involving cats by an old grandma. Itachi had done a similar mission where he wore fake car ears…

“I had no idea.” The teenager said.

“The Uchihas don’t discuss it much, but the Sandaime briefed me on this. You are the clan leader, the new summoner of cats. You’ll also have to meet Nekobaa.”

“Who is that?”

“The guardian of the cat-shinobis. She takes care of the trade between humans and those cats who remain hidden in their territory.”

Jun frowned. A contract with cats and a visit to their sitter didn’t seem like a very big sacrifice. He put the contract aside.

“I will sign it later.”

They finished their sorting. There were quite a few choices of summonings. Crows, hawks, owls, salamanders, squirrels, weasels, skunks… Jun lamented out loud. The choices weren’t really to his liking.

Shikaku and Jun set a schedule so that he could devote more time to his family, but also go to the Division to learn how to manage a clan. Moreover, he had to continue doing missions. But with the situation, he probably wouldn’t receive missions that would take him away from the village for the next few months. He planned to train rigorously the kids during that time. He may even create a new Fuinjutsu technique during that period.

Jun took Izumi aside and asked her if she could specialize her studies of Medical Ninjutsu on eye care. Both of them had the Sharingan, and there was no way an outsider could use their eyes without being blown up. Jun’s seal ensured that. However, Jun possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan, and in the long run, he will become blind.

That was the cost of using the power of the Mangekyo. He didn’t tell his sister that information, though. He just let her know that he didn’t trust anyone else to be tampering with his eyes if needed. Izumi agreed to his suggestion. However, Jun was hoping that if she ever became a high-level medic-nin, maybe she could find a way to fix the blindness caused by the use of the Mangekyo. Right now, the teenager didn’t want to think of the only method known to him to save his eyesight in the future.

Jun hadn’t told the kids the truth about what had happened during that fateful night of the massacre. But a few days after the massacre, he gathered everyone including Neji. Jun calmly informed them that Danzo had been killed along with the Uchihas. He explained to them what kind of man he was and the truth about his death.

When he finished his monologue, the children were pale. They all understood what he meant to convey to them. Danzo was behind the Uchiha massacre in a way and was responsible for Shisui’s death.

“And what now?” Kazuma asked.

That was the big question. Jun had no idea what to do next. His goal had been to survive the massacre, and it was achieved. He hadn’t thought passed that objective.

“That’s a good question, Kazuma. Honestly, I don’t know. I guess it’s up to us to decide what happens next.”