Chapter Text
The stars swam. No chance of making out constellations, nothing to focus on anymore.
It shouldn't make him want to cry anymore; it had been ages seen he had the sight to make out the stars. The cost of the sharingan. The only gift it gave him in return was the picture of the sky his teammate died under, and a crystal-clear snapshot of hundreds of crime scenes.
It didn't seem to be a fair trade anymore.
Uchiha Takuma should have appreciated the stars more when he was younger. Should have done a lot of things. Should've never fallen in love with the pure ideal of police work, of making things better, of finding out who did what.
No one wanted you to poke into their secrets. No one wanted to see the truth exposed, and all the darkness of Konaha to come to light. No one wanted justice. No, not when it really counted, not when it threatened the war effort or was it the peace now? Whichever. There wasn’t much difference.
The life of a shinobi was built on lies and blood. It wouldn't change. Why had he ever thought otherwise?
Takuma took another swig of sake and tasted nothing. It was still empty. Pity.
"Wait up! What are you doing out so late at night? Have you thought of a lead?" Asked Uchiha Akari, who for some reason even after all these years still hadn't requested a different partner.
"Wondering where the rest went." Uchiha Takuma said shaking his bottle.
"I am too! I know the director said those were all their records, the nine-tails caused a lot of damage, but there should still be more that, right?" She said and continued rambling on.
Something about orphans, and paperwork, and disappearances. It didn't matter.
Soon enough she would find her way blocked by redactions, and clearance levels, and people who made sure the darkness of Konaha remained unseen. And if that wasn't enough to break her spirit, there were always the way any protestors of Konaha tended to just go away, and no one was supposed to look too hard at that. If anything, the police were supposed to help that process.
Around the time Konaha had been founded the Uchiha had been given the twisted honor of enforcing the law and carrying out justice not that many preferred it even over a battlefield. They had not been given trust. And no one had been given justice or peace or even a safe childhood despite all the promises.
Takuma slumped over and would've met cobbles if it weren't for Akari catching him.
"Whoa there. I know the investigation has been... rough. But we'll find them. Ozumo, Ren, Hana, and so many more will return home." She smiled, and had he ever looked so hopeful? He must have once, "Maybe we should get you home first captain."
"No one's going home!" Takuma snapped, "None of those kids are making it home, you understand me?! Orphans have always just disappeared. Poof. Into thin air. Nothing will change that."
The words were barely out of his mouth before his face met the cobble stones. It hurt. Uchiha Takuma didn't even bother rolling over.
"Of course, we won't succeed if you have already given up!" Akari shouted, "Do you have any pride?! Any honor. The people of Konaha are relying on us to investigate and you're getting drop down drunk!"
He didn't expect her shouts to be this painful.
"Are you blind? 'The people of Konaha' don't care, they can't even trust that we wouldn't burn the village to the ground. No other clan is under such surveillance! Those Hyuuga bastards don't have to put up with this." And Takuma was surprised by the bitterness in his own voice.
"So, what! Yeah, it hurts, it's insulting, but I don't get why everyone is too busy bitching and whispering about all the disrespect to earn that trust back. We still have a duty."
"...Didn't think it got to you. Didn't think anything did."
"Yeah. Well, it does." Akari took a deep shuddering breath, all her rage seemed to ebb away, and there was once again a smile on her face, "But have to keep moving anyway, so are you getting up?"
"... Not tonight."
"Well... see you tomorrow then."
And there was something about the certain way she said it that made Takuma have the sudden urge to follow her or even get started on his own work. It was ridiculous. But if she didn't burn out, she would make an excellent chief of police, way better than Fugaku's brats even if one of them was some kind of prodigy.
Didn't his sensei say something about this once, the old making way for the new? He didn't remember much but the twang of wire anymore, but the words felt right.
Underneath the night sky Uchiha Takuma stumbled along, slumped over, and finally passed out.
The morning was an unwelcome irritation. His eye's stung, his skin itched, and he was sore in places he never used to be when he was younger even after a month straight of wilderness survival. And even after well over two decades healed his leg still throbbed.
There had to be other ways to stop him from running back for his doomed teammate, right? Well maybe not, he wasn’t very rational when he was younger. At least it kept him out of the rest of the war.
And after a few faltering attempts, he gathered enough control to heal his hangover.
Takuma sighed in utter relief. Clones, Edo Tensei, Grand fire ball jutsu, shushin, rasangan, absolutely nothing compared this little trick he refined over the months and years of experimentation. And as the pain eased, the world seemed a bit more manageable.
It was still barely dawn. He could go back to sleep maybe even somewhere with sheets; he should shower and eat. Yes, that sounded lovely.
Instead, Takuma got to his feet and headed towards the police station. Maybe he could finish some of the requisition forms Akari was stalling on, as a not quite apology for snapping. He never minded paperwork anyway or at least he didn’t when compared to her.
The streets were empty as usual this morning, especially as he got closer to the Uchiha district. There was nothing wrong with that. There was no illusion. There was no reason to feel like he was walking in enemy territory.
But even if it wasn't logical, Uchiha Takuma twisted his chakra into something light and invisible and took to the roof tops.
First piece of evidence: the door to the Police Station was unlocked swinging open. A minor infraction. There was no reason to worry at all if it weren't for the way the air felt dead. No chakra signatures inside. No sound. Nothing.
Takuma jumped to the second story window and observed rows and rows of empty desks. He was never the first to arrive. And the night shift should be here, yet he couldn't even smell coffee brewing. There was an entirely different smell in the air. Blood.
No, it couldn't be. Not here.
With a thud his old sensei would have killed him for Takuma raced towards their shared desk. It was placed at an awkward spot near the stairwell, not that Akari minded. She liked talking to people as they passed by.
She was still at their desk. Slumped over. Her blood staining the papers and drying on the floor.
And no matter how hard he tried, Takuma couldn't convince himself that she was just passed out and injured. He had seen too many corpses. It was too late to deactivate his sharingan. He didn't want to see this. He didn’t want to see this! But Takuma did not look away, he needed to remember every last detail.
A bloody jagged hole straight through the throat. No time to scream. Murder weapon: kunai embedded in the wall. Standard make. There was a red ribbon marking it for someone that didn't want to lose it.
No signs of a struggle. Window behind her still closed, intruder likely entered through the front gate and went up the stairs. Door opened outward. Victim would see them coming from that entrance; either wasn't on guard, distracted, or murderer had superior stealth and genjutsu. Possible combination.
Last seen by Takuma Uchiha. Further investigation to be required. Came here to work instead of heading home, likely due to a lead on her case, stubbornness, and habit of overwork. Blood already dried. Given volume victim died four hours ago.
Next step in investigation: look further into kidnapping case. Potential motives. Next step in investigation: tell her brother she's not coming to his graduation. She is his last relative. Next step in investigation-
The world grew blurry again, even the sharingan's perfect vision was useless, as Uchiha Takuma began to cry.
She was supposed to live.
He knew seventeen was old enough to die but this wasn't wartime, they were working safe within the village's walls, there shouldn't be any danger to be on guard for. There was no reason to ask half joking what flowers she would like at her funeral like Takuma did with the rest of his teammates. He was never supposed to outlive her.
So how could he be expected to do anything but stand vigil over her until the world felt real again.
Thump.
There were sunflowers on her mug. Sunflower meaning: joy, loyalty, good fortune. Two out of three. Did she like those or did she also borrow this mug from someone else?
"Wait. One's alive?!"
Sunflowers wouldn't have the right meaning for a funeral. What was right? White lily: the funeral standard, sorrow. Purple Hyacinth: grief, I am sorry. Dark crimson rose: mourning. Cyclamen: resignation, and goodbye. Cypress: despair.
"Sir. Sir! We need to get out of here. It isn't secure."
No. None of those flowers fit anything but her death, the common fate of all shinobi. They didn’t suit her life.
Takuma stayed rooted to the ground. A tug wasn't enough.
Dandelion: overcoming hardship, youth. Chrysanthemum: optimism, cheer, a good life. Pink Hydrangea: gratitude. Iris: your friendship means much to me, faith, hope. Catus: endurance. Coltsfoot: justice shall be done.
Someone blocked his vision and-
"Don't touch the body!" Uchiha Takuma shouted eyes once again spinning red in fury.
You would think those damn Anbu would understand jurisdiction by now, especially when the crime occurred literally in the Uchiha police office.
Just because no one can question them they think they can get away with anything. Well. Okay. They can and do get anyway with everything because it’s for the will of the village or some other shit. Not that he's supposed to know let alone speak about those incidents.
The day when the special ops, or god forbid, T&I oversee general law enforcement, is the day when Takuma finally jumped into his grave or gave up on Konaha entirely.
"I don't care about your clearances; who's jurisdiction this is can't be argued. Stand aside."
And finally, the bone faced bastard stepped back, "Uchiha-san you need to come with us. It isn't safe. Aside from Sasuke Uchiha you are the only known survivor of your clan."
It wasn't a joke.
He knew it wasn't a joke; this wasn't the time, people, or place for these silent shadows to play some kind of prank. Still Takuma laughed and laughed. No one else seemed to get the absurdity growing tense, passing signals, shifting ever so slightly away. Odd. You would think shinobi would understand the need to splinter just a little so not to shatter.
Besides, it really was all so utterly absurd.
All laughter died in his throat as Takuma remembered Akari's little brother, Taiga. He had to be alive. Otherwise, how could Takuma ever hope to prepare the right flowers for anyone that mattered?
There were seven dead. Seven crime scenes were memorized.
Two dead in the hallway trying to run. One on nightshift. One janitor, not even an Uchiha. One dead next to the exit. One with the short straw manning the front desk. Three who were playing cards, and barely had time to fight back-
Takuma stopped for a moment sharingan still spinning as he examined the scene crouching down amidst the blood and gore. Something about it didn’t make sense.
A newbie to the force accidentally and rather poorly stabbed his senior. Normally this could be explained by their opponent being faster and moving out of the way, but that wasn’t right.
Even the most experienced shinobi wouldn’t be able to avoid smearing the already dead officer's blood. But the killer’s footsteps were unbroken and still enough to leave a clear bloody footprints only interrupted by splatters of blood that should have been interrupted by the killer’s form especially since they were around 5’7 or 5’10 simply judging by shoe size.
Were they intangible? Likely proficient in genjutsu since Akari was not alerted by the commotion.
“No wonder they were all killed.”
“Uchiha-san. What have you found?” An anbu asked.
Takuma ignored them and after checking the junior officer’s pouch confirmed the missing kunai was the one that severed his junior partner’s throat. A tendency towards using opponents weapons against them...
Common behaviour of missing ninja who could not get as much access to weaponry, a common teaching of the Hua Clan, or perhaps a personal and rather practical quirk. He’d need more evidence to make any judgement.
The anbu were discussing something amongst themselves. Takuma didn’t care as he made his way to the Uchiha Compound, he couldn't delay, he needed to find Taiga.
Quiet streets, but an alarm wouldn't be needed for even civilians to just know something was wrong. They lived among ninjas.
This was worthy of alarm. Likely reasons for silence: it was too late, alarms destroyed, the butcher already known to have fled. The anbu are not preventing movement instead continuing to guard: further proof that knowledge of killer is known and not an active threat.
Only one dead at the gate. Uchiha Hana retired genjutsu specialist, still took odd shifts at the police station. Favorite flower: crocus. Still curled protectively around- oh. Takuma took a deep shuddering breath eyes stinging. Two dead at the gate. Mother and baby. Sword pierced through them both, dying together.
He had to step over them. He had to keep going. Later. He had to deal with that later.
There was no time to focus on the details, on evidence, he had to find Taiga. Their apartment was so close. He could hear the windchimes in the dead air.
He still saw fifteen dead before he got there.
The door was unlocked. This was not evidence of foul play; their family was never particularly paranoid inside their clan's walls. And Taiga liked inviting all the kids over.
There wasn't a sleepover today, he died alone blood staining the sheets. A sword slit his throat. There was no saving him. Takuma wouldn’t have to break the news of his sister’s death, make sure he has enough food, and take care of him in the aftermath. There was nothing Takuma could do to help. He needed to-
No. He couldn’t think like that. This was still a crime scene. He had a job to do.
The blood was still tacky in some places, dead for at least seven hours. Given the angle and traces of blood on the ground the killer must have been standing right beside his bedside when they stabbed down. Takuma adjusted his stance, picturing the motion. Why didn’t that seem right?
Oh, because Akari and the officers were killed by kunai and their own weapons, not a sword, and by someone around 5’7. The one who stabbed Taiga and Hanna was almost a foot shorter than the other killer.
At least two different murders then. Likely more. If then entire clan was massacred, then at least one had to be a genjutsu specialist to keep the screams from being heard.
It would all become clear in time.
Uchiha Takuma would find out the truth even if it killed him, he had too many graves to swear that on to do anything else. Someone's head must roll for this.
"You should go back. The anbu can take it from here, you shouldn't have to witness this." And was that pity in the silver haired anbu's mouth?
"Who else is left to investigate! Who else is left to make sure everyone is accounted for, and everyone makes it to their funeral? Who else is left to burn their eyes?!" Takuma shouted, "Wait have the rest of you shadows already started poking at the bodies?"
Oh god. There were over a hundred pairs of sharingan undefended. Anyone could be desecrating his clan's corpses, from enemy infiltrators or more internal dangers, after all Orochimaru had gone so long undetected... How many others would be willing to experiment?
And he had just left Akari's body there where anyone could take it! How could he forget this terrible responsibility?!
He needed to burn the bodies.
One of the bird masked anbu grabbed his shaking shoulder, "You need to leave here."
There was a threat underlying this one's tone, like a sheathed blade. Damn anbu. It was only a matter of time before they forced him away, as they took over the investigation. They would pocket the bodies, scrub blood, and take anything determined dangerous. The crime scene would be ruined.
Over his dead body.
"No. You are going to dismiss every Anbu intruding in the compound, and get me four hundred body scrolls, a camera too. There should still be some at the station. There will be a proper investigation, and a proper report on events, what you do does not qualify." Takuma demanded as he moved further away from them.
There were hand signs again. He didn't care.
"We are not doing that. You shouldn't be here, you still need to report how you survived to the Hokage, and don't you want to visit Sasuke? He’s alone."
Oh, a teaspoon of emotional manipulation to make the poison go down sweater. Touching.
"No. And before you start trying to argue, move closer, or force me to leave, just know this. If you don't let me investigation properly right now while the crime scene is fresh, I will kill myself."
One flinched back at that, amateur move.
"Why so shocked? My clan is massacred, my junior partner is dead, my one friend outside these walls hasn't talked to me in years, I haven't even met the other survivor. Right now, the only reason I have to keep moving is that Akari would kick me out of the pure lands for arriving before I even finished burying everyone."
“Konaha is st-”
“The village has never once demanded that I live before, only that I die the right way. So don’t try to lie about that now.”
There was silence at that, one even started reaching for their weapon. Unsurprising. The anbu weren't exactly trained to talk people into surviving.
"You know for all the dishonor suicide supposedly is us ninja have invented a lot of approved ways to do it." Takuma continued almost conversationally, "I have copied too many ‘sacrifice’ jutsu. There's a sealess lightning jutsu to fry the brain, an inferno that devours all the user's chakra. There are some fun ways to drown, and even more interesting ways to fuck up a medical jutsu, and if that's all too complicated, there's always explosion tags. Pretty sure I still got some."
"There's no reason to go that far." Bird masked anbu tried even as his stance shifted, and chakra build up for something unpleasant.
"Stop. Hawk, go get what he asked for. Lizard, tell everyone else to guard the perimeter, I'll guard him." Ordered the silver-haired anbu captain.
And just like that they scattered.
"Well, wasn't that easy!"
Silence. The remaining anbu tossed him a body storage scroll in a move so telegraphed that it wouldn't startle even a civilian. Smart man.
His hands shook as he labeled Uchiha Taiga over the seal, and with a twist of chakra the kid's body vanished. One corpse secured. Hundreds to go. For a moment Takuma knelt there barely able to comprehend just how much further he had to move.
It was like climbing a mountain. You couldn't focus on the peaks; you had to focus on making just one more step. To think that his still living teammate's favorite, and his most hated, taijutsu mantra would be relevant at a time like this. She would be smug.
First step first.
You must secure the crime scene.
Takuma waited a moment until anbu Hawk handed him three bags stuffed full of body scrolls. And another bag just for all the photos he'd be taking. The sharingan had its limits or rather he did; there were some scenes you didn't want engraved on your memory. Takuma spread out his sensing range until he could feel the bright spots of the anbu receded just outside of the clan compound. Perfect.
He turned away and started towards the shrine at the center of the compound.
With a spin of the sharingan the passage down from it spun open in return and Takuma made his way down.
It was surprisingly well cared for. There was no dust, no cobwebs, one of the torches was recently burned, the mats were arranged along the long table, Takuma wasn't aware that the clan still held meetings here. But nowhere else was even close to secure. This shrine had lasted as long as the Uchiha lived in Konaha. It held onto their secrets.
Takuma took a side path to a room that was the same as it once was decades ago when his grandmother first showed it to him. Seals painted the walls in comforting red. With a spark of chakra Takuma ignited the five torches and walked to the center of the room.
He sat down and just like his grandmother slowly and carefully started signing, serpent, bird, ox, dragon, tiger. He slammed a palm down.
Ink twisted along the ground. And far away five previously unnoticed border stones flared as a barrier was once again set into place around the Uchiha district. Takuma felt a little tension ease in his shoulders. Good.
"What was that." The dog faces anbu asked.
Oh right, he was still here. Takuma couldn't care less, "That was a barrier that hasn't needed to be activated in decades. You can leave but you can't enter unless you have the blood of an Uchiha."
"That could be a problem for the anbu what if-"
"What. They feel like helping? They feel like doing anything instead of just watching and watching and driving me to drink outside these walls." Takuma snorted, "Should've helped seven hours ago. Too late now. This entirely falls under the jurisdiction of the Uchiha police. I have a duty."
The anbu fell quiet.
Takuma picked back up his bags of body scrolls. He had a lot of work to do.
For a time, he worked on automatic. Record, take photos, remember, label, seal away. Body and memories both would have to be released, analyzed, and delt with later.
Of course, his mind couldn't work completely on automatic.
For far too many Takuma had to investigate, leafing through mail, rubbing away blood on dog tags. He simply didn't know everyone's names. He wasn’t very social. Hopefully someone outside the clan would know them; no one should be forgotten so easily.
For others he just had to stop and turn off his sharingan before he could see any more. Takuma had never seen so many corpses so small before. At least death came for them quickly, and all the cribs in the nursery were labeled so no one would be buried under someone else's name. Wasn't that such a terrible mercy...
Never before had Takuma been so relieved that he never had children. Who could have done this? Why? Why would anyone do this?
He didn't know. He didn't understand. Takuma never had that problem before, and how was he supposed to solve this when his mind went blank on such a vital question as motive?
The anbu offered him another body storage scroll.
"Hatake. Why do you think the anbu's current suspect did this? I'll tell you how I survived if you answer."
"How do you know my name." There was an edge of a threat there.
"Oh, right village secrets. I forgot. Don't worry, it was half a guess and half information I doubt anyone else would piece together." Takuma said as he picked up the dropped body scroll.
"White hair isn't too rare, but it does knock off a significant chunk of people off the list especially since shinobi aren't likely to dye their hair white for anbu. The rest of the squad deferred to you, and not only that you are confident enough to be my only guard, so a high level jonin. Only so many of those. You had by far the worst reaction to me threatening suicide.” Takuma shrugged.
“Besides being the only person to either be gifted a sharingan or the first cruel unrepentant bastard to get away with bloodline theft since Madera Uchiha himself put you on every last Uchiha's radar as someone to relentlessly and ruthlessly gossip about."
"What."
"My junior partner once thought it odd you were seen at the hospital when her cousin knew you hadn't picked up a mission in months, and Gai was complaining about not having any challenges in the village. This wasn't a one-off thing either so anbu, or something I'm not going to say to your face..."
Kakashi sighed low and tired slumping over a bit, "I suppose I don't need to tell you not to disclose anbu identities, and all the terrible consequences."
"I've been disciplined enough for smaller infractions already. So, are you going to answer my questions? Who did this and why."
"Our current suspect is Itachi. He killed everyone in a single night and then practically confessed as he walked out of the gate. I don't know why."
Itachi? The little prodigy? Uchiha Takuma knew him from Fugaku's not quite brags about his eldest son's progress that seemed to be absurd until you met the little bugger, and it turned out all to be true.
The one time they met in anything but passing was when Fugaku told Takuma to bring Itachi along to examine the body of a murdered servant girl.
The kid was eight.
So, it was good that he was learning this now in a safe supervised environment before he was thrown into a life or death battle.
Best to see one before you make one and all that. It stops you from freezing up so much or so they say. It was practically tradition. Takuma’s grandmother just took him to the morgue, complaining all the while that when she was his age, she had already been to a dozen Senju-Uchiha battlegrounds to clean up the bodies... Anyway.
The kid absorbed all the little details, able to reason out the killer's height, and the likely murder weapon. He hadn't been able to figure out motive. A bit too quick to report potential traitors and propose genjustu when interrogating too. It was a little frightening.
Takuma reported back that Itachi was shaping up to be a great shinobi and that unless the kid absolutely had a passion, or they were even more understaffed then they already were, he shouldn’t be pushed into the police force.
He tried to remember anything more recent and was coming up blank.
There was the funeral, right? And Akari remarked that Itachi would be devastated about her cousin Shushi, and that he didn’t deserve all those rumors flying about... Takuma mostly remembered seeing Itachi alone.
There were many among the police that were suspicious about the Shushi’s likely murder (the kid was apparently not acting suicidal and actively making plans about the future of the clan) and Itachi’s far too calm reaction to it. One officer on the case ranted Takuma’s ear off about nepotism and how easily a clan head’s son and obvious member of anbu could get away with murder.
Even if Itachi was closest, Shushi had a lot of friends among the clan.
Still even with that rant, no one was suspecting Itachi was splintering apart in a way that would result in this. Still, it wasn't impossible. Takuma didn’t exactly talk to a lot of people. Further investigation required and all that.
God Fugaku must have been devastated.
No, you couldn't think like that, as if the murder had already been determined by one testimony, by one piece of evidence. Especially when Takuma barely had anything else of the picture. He wasn't that bad of a detective. He needed to confirm things.
"Okay, I'll have to talk to those guards later. Finish securing the crime scene first, then confirm that I really am not the only one alive... How’s Sasuke?"
"Still unconscious in the hospital and under heavy guard. Don't worry, he wasn't injured physically, instead placed under a genjutsu."
"That's worse." Takuma shuddered, the mind was always harder to heal than the body, and any genjutsu that wouldn't let you wake or someone else break the illusion... He didn't want to contemplate such a technique, but it was hard not to. It sounded like the mangekyo. The final evolution of the sharingan forged out of the despair of destroying what you love.
Surrounded by the bodies of his entire clan, it was a horrifying thought that there was still room to plunge further into despair. No power in the world could be worth that.
But would Itachi gain the mangekyo? Did he kill Shushi? Another question to add to the mountain of them.
"Do you think Itachi did this alone?"
"Do you think he had help." Kakashi tensed, and really why do people have to take his deductions seriously now. Annoying. Even if it's 'for his own safety' Takuma was not going to hand over a reason for him to be forced away and guarded so easily.
"Ah well to kill this many people in one night... it's a logical conclusion. It seems absurd for it all to be one man, unless he had the mangekyo sharingan. And oh right, you wanted to know, I survived that because I was drop dead drunk in some alley. This was hell to wake up to."
Takuma pulled himself to his feet and started walking in the opposite direction.
This was all too clean. The Uchiha had a long history of on and off clan wide curfews for the war, and it was still a habit for many to return to the compound by sunset especially when they felt watched. So, it was logical that most of the clan was gathered here. But for everyone to be? No.
While most Uchiha worked at the police station, many were still on the active roster for shinobi. Missions took priority over clan business. People on night guard at the wall, team missions escorting or assassinating people across the land of fire... and there were even more personal reasons to be out of the compound for the night. The killers would have to be awfully lucky to get everyone.
Uchiha Takuma did not believe in such luck. So, time to test the waters for conspiracy.
If he was asked to pick one home that would be the hardest to massacre all members of without raising any alarms, first he would laugh, then he would send whatever questioner this was in for some kind of interrogation mostly to figure out how their mind worked, but if he was absolutely pressed Takuma would pick this house.
Close to the edge allowing for an easy escape into Konaha proper, and home to two jonin, and one who really should get promoted to that rank already even if they were a little unstable. It was the residence of Team Inu.
It was practically unheard of for non-Uchiha to live inside the compound especially when they hadn't married in, but Team Inu was the exception in everything. They were the only team to escape Kiri's special brand of interrogation physically intact and never left each other's side since. Even the most traditional elders only grumbled as they passed by, as even they realized what a bad idea it would be to separate the team.
Takuma was pulled back as an executioner's blade nearly sliced off his head. All he did was try the handle.
Damn trap masters.
"You know Kato always told me that it's only paranoia to sleep with a kunai under your pillow every night but one. It's nice to know he practiced what he preached. Mind getting the door open for me?"
Turns out Uchiha Kato had also figured out how to electrify the lock just in case anyone tried to lock pick it before he died. Luckily, just destroying the wall worked wonders.
Takuma cautiously stepped through the hole in the wall and on the other side was Kato Uchiha. He was stabbed through the heart after he unlocked five dead bolts, released god knows how many traps, and all to welcome inside his murderer.
Even after everything that happened, he still trusted his clan to be safe.
Kato would have time to shout a warning; a jonin of his caliber wouldn’t die easily even from such a fatal wound. Blood was scattered as he tried to fight back. It wasn’t enough.
He needed more clues.
Yakamada Chiba was decapitated cleanly, arterial spray painting the walls even getting on the knocked aside table.
But all Takuma could focus on were two drops of blood, alone at the center of the room. Recent, two or so inches apart, near perfectly circular, spattering edges, like they dropped straight down from over five feet. Takuma had seen similar stains when patients bleed from the eyes... Had she forced Itachi to use the manegekyo?
Impressive.
Now time to find the third teammate. A trail on blood led away from the dinner table to their room. Luckily the traps on the bedroom door were all one-time use and tragically none of them had drawn blood. They might have bought just enough time to escape.
“Diagnostic jutsu: Blood Resonance.”
Type AB blood. Male. No relation to the Uchiha or Yakamada clans. Not a sample he had previously analyzed. No signs of blood poisoning. This was Hara’s blood.
From what Takuma could remember their final teammate Hara was promoted to jonin even after losing one by one all the fingers on his right hand to Kiri’s interrogators. Given the empty sheath he was likely a kenjutsu specialist now.
The trail of blood leading to the window was sharp droplets, it didn’t slowly drip down as Hara limped away, it was flung aside as Hara bolted to escape, jumped out the window, to get help. The bleeding was heavy, but it didn’t seem to slow him down much.
Takuma hesitated.
Yup there was two near invisible wires lining just a few centimeters above the windowsill. What would touching that trigger? He couldn’t make out any weapons, but the paint job to the sides of the windows was just a little off. And sure enough, as Takuma chipped away, he could make out the edges of an explosive tag.
Damn trap masters. Even after you kill them, they can still kill you. Takuma scowled and tried to ignore the memories bubbling up as he made his way carefully out of the building.
“I haven’t seen that jutsu before.” Kakashi interjected.
“Well copy it while you can, with the entire police force slaughtered I doubt you’ll see it again. Don’t worry, it isn’t too difficult. I developed it to be simple to use unlike the medical diagnostic jutsu which gives newbies more information than they can understand or need.”
“Interesting. And the body is that way.”
Takuma rolled his eyes and kept following the trail of blood as it wound towards the body. Given the snapped branches, blood, and actual footprints, Hara wasn’t slowing down even to be stealthy, so it was easy to follow his path.
He traveled at an angle not straight towards Konaha proper. Odd. But he was definitely heading straight towards something or someone.
Hara made it to the wall. He was mere inches away before he died. He was so close to getting help and raising the alarm... How many people could have lived if he succeeded?
Takuma couldn’t help but sigh.
The blood trail likely came from the brace of kunai still embedded in his side, but the fatal wound came from a sword stabbing him through the back. Itachi must have gotten him first except... there was blood on Hara’s blade. He must have twisted around to stab his killer.
Given the rate of decomposition, team Inu was among the first to die. The nursery was among the last, same with half a dozen other crime scenes. And yet as Takuma ran through his memories, he can’t remember a major blood splatter he couldn’t attribute to anyone but the victims. There was no evidence that Itachi was stabbed.
“I’ll demonstrate it again, Diagnostic jutsu: Blood Resonance.”
Type A blood. Male. No relation to the Uchiha clan. Iron deficiency. Possible relation to Haruno Umi: civilian whose son disappeared and was not found.
What.
Takuma tried to make his face blank and hoped desperately that he succeeded. He still needed more evidence to be certain.
Takuma walked up the wall. There was no trail of blood to follow, this killer valued stealth. Still where would you perch to heal your wounds... Thick foliage to hide from sight but not so thick to impair your own, strong branches, not too far away, there, that was the tree.
He jumped down, landing at the base.
Activating his sharingan Takuma could make out the tiniest details, all he needed was a brush of dark red-brown dust. There. His spymaster grandmother taught him this technique to get blood out of his clothes, and it was picked up by anbu later to erase evidence. But it’s lingering remnants couldn’t be hidden from his eyes.
With a buzz of chakra Takuma confirmed it.
Type A blood. Male. No relation to the Uchiha clan. Iron deficiency. Possible relation to Haruno Umi.
Hara’s killer was an anbu. It fit. Hara didn’t run straight towards Konaha proper he instead ran towards the anbu who could actually help him and quickly warn everyone. That’s why a skilled kenjutsu specialist would turn his back on someone who would stab him. That’s why no alarm ever sounded.
Takuma tried not to scream.
He took a deep breath.
This didn’t necessarily mean the village ordered the Uchiha’s deaths, or even that they willing looked away. This could still be the work of individual actors. After all, why would Konaha ever kill one of its founding clans?
Uchiha Takuma dreaded finding the answer.
He wasn’t a naive genin. He knew what shinobi were: tools of the village to be used and discarded with little care. There wasn’t enough room on a thousand memorial stones to honor all who died for Konaha and were just as quickly forgotten. People who tell the truth are silenced. There was darkness at the hearts of all shinobi villages for all this was their home.
Still. Takuma bled for this place even if he didn’t believe in it. He might have complained, but he served well when he was ordered to fight the second and third shinobi wars. He didn’t defect. He did his job and pretended he didn’t notice Konaha’s secrets.
Konaha couldn’t have ordered all their deaths, right?
"How many anbu did Itachi have to kill to pull this off?" Takuma tried to ask idly, like the question meant nothing "I mean, the Uchiha aren't blind we knew we were under constant surveillance, it made some of the elders twitchy. Hell, it made me twitchy enough to stop drinking at home."
"... I probably shouldn't tell you this, but you'll figure it out anyway. Itachi was an anbu captain. He knew the schedule and placed the rest of his team under a genjutsu, so they wouldn’t notice anything."
"What a betrayal." Takuma’s hands shook as he turned aside and returned to Hara’s corpse, sealing it away.
He wasn’t an Uchiha, but he died betrayed with them. If his family agreed, Takuma would like to see him buried with the Uchiha as well. That’s what he had to focus on. Investigation, and burial, not his anger, not his treasonous evidence, because if he disappeared right now, no one would question it.
He had to pretend nothing was wrong but the obvious.
The more crime scenes he examined, the more clearly Takuma could see the divide between the two killers.
One favored a sword, likely genjutsu, and their taijutsu was book perfect. Clean quick kills. It was Itachi. It was impossible to deny that.
The other was more varied and tended to use people's weapons against them, and there was more and more evidence they had a kekkei genkai that allowed them to turn intangible.
Both murderers used katon.
It helped somewhat turning it all into just another crime scene in his mind. Don't focus on the faces. Stop thinking about when he had last seen them, who they once were. This is just another murder if seemingly without end.
Takuma still paused at the main house.
To think he still hesitated at intruding even after a lifetime of barging into other's blood-stained homes and was nearing the tail end of the massacre. But Fugaku was his boss and clan head. You just weren't supposed to just barge into his house without invitation, and it wasn't like they were friends. If anything, Fugaku was a professional annoyance.
In his youth Fugaku used to scold Takuma about going too far in investigating, playing dumb, starting fights with other clans that they just couldn't win, and twisting his way around orders he didn’t like.
Then as his will was slowly ground away and Takuma finally understood how pointless his efforts were, the bastard changed his tune! Now it was all, you can do better than that, stop drinking, stop wasting away, you are not retiring, here's a politically sensitive kidnapping to solve, here's a new enthusiastic partner who’ll need your guidance. Prick.
But as much Takuma had cursed his name when drunk, he never thought Fugaku deserved to die at his son's hands.
His killer could only be Itachi; there weren't any signs that he fought back.
Takuma wasn't surprised. Fugaku loved in son the way only a shinobi father could, putting weapons in a child's too small hands, showing them the war they must live in, wiping away blood stains, praising and pushing for every increase in strength, as only the strong survive. This is the only way they know to live.
Mikoto made the same choice to not fight back even as her child killed them even as her hands curled into fists and her nails dug into her palms. They didn’t know each other. Takuma could not guess at what she must have been thinking as the blade came down.
The blood was long since dried, and given the decomposition rate, they were among the very first to die. Did they know Itachi was going to kill the rest of the clan? What did they ask Itachi as the sword came down? What would they wish for Takuma to do about their sons? What flowers would they want brought to their grave?
He did not know their answers.
Takuma sealed away their bodies. Was this everyone?
He wandered through the house pushing open doors until he finally found the office. One of the effects of a clan having a protected dojutsu is that they kept very through and very accurate records of clan members. One by one, Takuma checked collected bodies off the list.
There were only ten names left, the seven dead at the police station, the two living, and one to be officially banished from the clan.
They really were all dead.
There was a hand on his shoulder; you wouldn't think an anbu mask could express such pity. Takuma got to his feet once again, brushing off the grip. He still had bodies to bury.
There was starting to be a crowd, and really Takuma didn't want to deal with anyone. So, he cast one of his most practiced genjutsu, it didn't quite make him invisible just beneath notice ideal for avoiding both pushy salespeople and ninja behind enemy lines.
One after the other, Takuma sealed what remained of the night shift before arriving at their shared desk. Akari was still there, of course. Her throat was still slit, her skin was still far too pale, she was still dead. She was still so young.
It didn't look peaceful. The dead never really do once you look closely.
"I should have told you how proud I was, how certain I was that you would have gone on to outshine me. I should have asked what grave flowers you'd like. I should have taught you so much more. But I didn't. I'm sorry. I thought we had more time."
Takuma paused as if he would receive an answer.
"You always hated when I gave up even more than when I never showed up at all, so I am going to keep trying this time. I will solve this even if it means I'll be seeing you sooner than you'd like. Good- Goodbye Akari."
And with a twist of chakra, she was sealed away like the rest. There was only one body left.
"Kakashi. I'd like to go see Sasuke now."