Аннотация: Sasuke remembers last night. Meeting the surviving children of the Uchiha clan.
Sasuke had a very scary dream. It was as if he had returned home after training and entered the surprisingly deserted territory of the clan. The moon in the sky caused a strange feeling of doom and longing. His heart was beating like a trapped mouse.
"No! I'm a ninja, I'm not afraid of anything!" Sasuke objected to himself in his dream.
He took a few more steps. A vague outline took shape, and he saw his aunt lying on the pavement, turning her empty eyes into the cold black autumn sky.
"Itachi! Mom! Father!" He ran to his house.
His gaze clung to the corpses of clansmen lying here and there, through which his path ran. He recognized many of them. The black shadows seemed to live on their own. They reached out to him, reproached him for something. The smell of blood filled his nostrils, making him suffocate. A sickening stench. Sasuke knew that Shinobi was a profession that involved killing, and he had been trained for it since childhood - to kill or be killed. But he had never seen death so closely or so much. It was as if he had fallen into a terrible illusion from which it was impossible to escape. Finally, he reached the house, which was greeted with ominous silence and darkness.
"Mom? Itachi?! The father?.." In the cold darkness, the voice sounded timid and trembled disgustingly.
His knees were shaking slightly, and every step was difficult, as if Sasuke was walking against the current of a viscous icy river. Pushing aside the shoji, he saw the sprawled bodies of his parents and his older brother next to them.
"Nii-san, what happened?" He wanted to ask, but his tongue seemed to have dried up or stuck to the roof of his mouth.
A moment later, Itachi also fell down next to his parents.
"No! Nii-san!" Sasuke screamed, feeling pain in his eyes and dizziness. It was as if someone with sharingans burning like coals had been woven out of the shadows.
"Go to sleep!" a strangely familiar voice ordered him... Sasuke woke up. Sunlight flooded an unfamiliar room, and next to him, Naruto was sitting on a futon.
"Where are we?" Sasuke wheezed, surprised by his friend's presence.
Naruto shrugged and whispered, nodding somewhere behind his back.
"I left Konoha to be with you and the survivors of the Uchiha clan massacre."
The words didn't reach him in any way, and Sasuke stared blankly into the blue eyes that looked at him with sympathy. The terrible truth took over the body and consciousness, paralyzing, depriving of breath.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shook him. "Sasuke... Your eyes are red...."
"It's a sharingan," he replied to his friend in an indifferently quiet voice. "There are none... My parents and my brother... They are no more."
"Do you know them?" Naruto braked, breaking out of his indifferent stupor.
Sasuke looked around. Yumiko was lying next to him, and his cousin was sobbing softly as she continued to sleep. Kazuki's second cousin was also tossing in his sleep. Sasuke didn't know the older girl, he'd only seen her a couple of times, and it seemed she was homeschooled, or maybe she wasn't a Shinobi at all. Next to her, a little girl of at most two years old was sleeping. And then there were four guys who looked from three to five years old, whom he also saw in the clan, but they were not close relatives, so they did not communicate, and he was never interested in these kids, he preferred to spend time with his brother, Yumiko and Kazuki, and now with Naruto. The memory of his brother made his heart clench again, his eyes stung, and Sasuke exhaled loudly, holding back tears.
The sound of the shutters opening distracted from the grief he was experiencing and forced him to get closer. Just because they were saved does not mean that it was done with good intentions. Of course, you can't compete with Sasuke's level against a strong Shinobi. But it happens that adult Shinobi do not expect fierce resistance from children. In fact, he could have taken the genin exam this year, but Itachi asked him not to. Especially trying to please his father, so that he would say "what was expected of my son." My brother didn't explain why, but...
When Sasuke saw the newcomer, or rather, the newcomers, all thoughts flew out of his head.
"Nii-san!" He flew up to his unharmed brother and hung on his neck. "You're alive!"
It took him a full second to realize that his enemies could trick him by playing on his feelings and replace him with his brother. For example, make a henge or send it into an illusion. He released the slightly blushing Itachi from his embrace and placed a kunai against his stomach, which, in the process of showing brotherly feelings, slipped out of the thigh sheath.
"How can you prove that it's you?"
"And our baby Sasuke is not a miss," said the second one who entered, whom Sasuke did not pay attention to at first, absorbed in the fact that Itachi was alive.
He glanced at his brother's companion, and the kunai fell out of his weakened hands.
"Shisui-nii-san?!" His cry coincided with the cry of the awakened Yumiko, who also ran up to her older brother.
***
All the children were woken up, and Shisui printed out the food from the grocery scroll.
"Eat first, and then I'll tell you everything," My cousin ordered it. Sasuke obediently took the onigiri and began to eat, hardly feeling the taste.
He reflected that of the entire Uchiha clan, which had more than two hundred people, eleven remained, nine of them children. There was a fear that his older brothers would abandon him and the rest of the little ones. The situation is very bad. For adult Shinobi, they are a burden. They are located somewhere unclear, perhaps in some clan hideout, but obviously not in Konoha. Naruto also said that he left the village to be with him and the others after the massacre. Who did this? Killed Yumiko's parents, mom, Kazuki's relatives, the rest of the clan? What will happen next? How will they live? Itachi also looks so strangely and looks away, as if he is ashamed of something.... Is he really going to leave? Leave him alone to seek happiness elsewhere. To forget about the clan he disliked so much and "limited his opportunities"? Sasuke remembered these words well.
Everyone ate in silence, an oppressive silence hung over the makeshift table, until the little girl suddenly began to whimper.
"Mina, I want to go to my mom. Ane-san, where is my mom?"
"Shh, Natsumi," her sister hissed at the girl, looking at the others in confusion.
"I'm sorry, onii-sama," the one named Mina addressed Shisui. "Natsumi is only a year and a half old, so she still doesn't understand well... I'm on my own... We fell asleep in Konoha, and woke up here... I don't know what happened...."
"The Uchiha clan is no more," Shisui said. "We are the survivors of last night."
Sasuke looked at the silent children. Yumiko's eyes widened, and, pulling away from her older brother, she looked into Shisui's serious and sad face. Kazuki, who was living with relatives because his entire family had died, including his older sister, who had disappeared on a mission just recently, paled. The others looked at each other and were silent, most likely unable to believe what they were saying. All the guys were future Shinobi who were trained for the military path from an early age, well, except for Natsumi, and they accepted the news quite staunchly. Only the smallest one sniffed.
"Then I'll talk to each of you separately, take care of each other," Shisui rolled up a grocery scroll. His face was tense. But after a second, he seemed to force a smile. "There are few of us left, but we are still the Uchiha clan. And now you can tell us your names and ages so that we can remember each other well. Let's start with you, imoto."
"I'm Uchiha Yumiko," Yumiko introduced herself obediently. "I'm still six years old, but I'm about to turn seven."
"I am Uchiha Kazuki," their second cousin was sitting next to Yumiko. "I turned seven this summer. I studied with Yumiko in the first year of the Shinobi Academy."
"My name is Uchiha Mina, and this is my little sister Natsumi," next was an older girl with her hair in a long ponytail on one side. "I am ten years old, and my sister is one and a half years old. My family was against me studying Shinobi because our older brother and sister died in the war. That's why I don't know much...."
"Uchiha Sen, six years old," a boy with dark copper hair tied like Itachi's in a low ponytail introduced himself.
The smallest of the guys sniffed and said nothing, but the other one spoke for him:
"This is Yui, he's three years old, and I'm Renzo, I'm four. Yui is very shy. Our families are friends. We were friends..."
"Uchiha Taro, five years old," said a boy with gray hair that was much lighter than Itachi's.
"Uchiha Sasuke, eight years old," it was Sasuke's turn to introduce himself. "The second year of the Shinobi Academy. The Awakened Sharingan," He reported after looking into Shisui's eyes.
"Uzumaki Naruto, I'm almost eight," Naruto, who was sitting next to him, scratched his head and added. "I'm studying with Sasuke. He's my friend, and I decided to join you. Here."
"Uchiha Itachi," Itachi introduced himself, looking around at the others. "I'm thirteen years old. Captain ANBU. Zenin."
The children whispered, and Sasuke felt a surge of pride for his older brother.
"Uchiha Shisui," Shisui ended their circle of acquaintance. "Sixteen years old... almost. Captain ANBU. Zenin. I hope you all remember each other well, because now we are one big family. I think Mina, Natsumi, Yui, and Renzo can stay here for now, and the rest will come with us. We have to think it over and decide together how to move on and what to do."
"Can I come with you too?" Mina asked, biting her lip. "I understand that I'm not a Shinobi, but I also want to be useful. Please, onii-sama. I'll learn, I can do it."
"Then, Yui and Renzo, you have your first responsible assignment. Keep an eye on Natsumi. We'll be back soon."
Renzo nodded. Sasuke got up and followed Shisui out with the others.