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master-amaris · 8 months

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Ino and Sakura

It's often said that Sakura cut off her ties with Ino for more reasons than just Sasuke. For some fans, she even did it because Ino was pushing her down purposefully in order to be always on top.

In that sense, and while this post has been written in another response, the other one will soon become a monster too huge to control, so I'll leave this here for better access and to better expand their relationship for those who are interested.

A warning you should know: Many images are shown while others are linked (pay attention to the underlined-bold words, they'll guide you to the image analyzed).

Despite the claims introduced before, on the panels we were shown their previous relationship during their childhood at no point did Ino seem to downgrade Sakura -either physically or mentally-, on the contrary, she's constantly shown trying to lift her spirits, like when she complements her looks:

Let the world see that pretty face!! Strike a pose!

At no point did Ino downgrade Sakura or put herself above; telling Sakura to show confidence doesn’t automatically put her in a higher position in their friendship.

To explain myself further: providing help when someone needs it isn’t the same as putting oneself in a morally or physically superior position. Their relationship is of equals regardless of Ino supplying emotional support. The fact that Sakura inwardly elevates Ino's relevance in their dynamic isn’t Ino’s responsibility as everything Sakura thinks of Ino is never expressed (translated, Ino isn't aware of her position inside their friendship, as she's never told her relevance). Furthermore, Ino never states that she considers herself attractive or prettier than Sakura herself, every time they speak on the matter Ino tells Sakura to be more confident as she has a "pretty face".

Him! Hah! He just struts around, acting like he’s so cool.

At no moment does Ino seem upset at Sakura for liking the same boy, in fact, she chooses to lie about how she feels for Sasuke in order not to start a conflict. This is, of course, not specified in canon, but since Ino doesn't display her feelings for Sasuke and, quite the contrary, she criticizes him, it's safe to assume she lied about her feelings.

And even if Ino is upset about Sakura liking the same boy as her, something that is neither expressed nor shown, she doesn’t act around it.

Furthermore, Sakura engages in conversations with Ino about Sasuke (Hey, Ino! Sasuke seems to like girls with long hair, so I’m going to grow mine…) and it doesn’t seem as if Ino dismisses the subject out of jealousy.

Everyone says you’re after Sasuke too, Ino…

I'm aware that some fans, specifically S//S and Saku-Ino fans, claim that Sakura assumed Ino liked Sasuke and Ino, in retaliation, started to like him back to make Sakura jealous (?), however, unlike those fans who think Ino's whole character revolves around Sakura (she is, indeed, a supporting character of her, but she outgrew her role to the point where she's barely seen with Sakura after the Chünin Exams) I do believe that Ino truly liked Sasuke and that she was indeed surprised by Sakura having equal feelings for him.

[I will here say that, personally, those who diminish Ino's feelings for Sasuke to use that "lesser" type of love (there's nothing like a "lesser" type of love, there're different ways to love someone. Caring for someone romantically doesn't reflect equally on each individual), as a justification why Sakura "deserved" Sasuke are carrying a sexist view inside their reading of the manga: Cartoon or not, Ino is still a representation of a woman yet, for them, she isn't as valuable as Sakura because she loved Sasuke in a different manner she did.

They're measuring Ino, Karin, and even Sakura's value by the way they display their respective feelings for a man.

In the same manner, Karin, who shows more sexual desire for Sasuke (I will not deny her romantical feelings, but she is clearly more driven by her sexual interest in him), is not less of a woman or less deserving of being with him because of the nature of her feelings.

There's no such thing as a "suffering-meter" that determines which character suffered the most out of love and, therefore, who deserves a happy ending with the object of their affection. That not only links love's nature primarily to suffering but also measures a person's romantic value in terms of how much pain they can endure (either for their significant other or provoked by their significant other).]

Again, Ino doesn’t act around her feelings for Sasuke (in the next flashback Ino -despite knowing Sasuke likes girls with long hair, keeps her own hair short) nor around her friend's attraction.

It was Sakura the one who decided to break their friendship because someone (unspecified) told her Ino liked Sasuke in the same way she did.

This is how we learn about their breakup:

Chapter 53

If it's true... that makes us rivals!

Keep in mind that, until then, we only knew Ino was Sakura’s rival, it's Shikamaru the one that introduces the idea of Sakura and Ino being best friends once, and we have these panels to understand a little bit more about their prior relationship.

This rumor is, in fact, truthful as they do become rivals -so why would Ino allow this break-up if she truly didn't like Sasuke? It makes absolutely no sense, meaning that this theory of Ino faking her attraction to Sasuke is completely false, as she canonically is infatuated with him. Furthermore, when confronted, she chooses not to lie about her romantic interest in him to Sakura. The expression of Ino when hearing Sakura’s words is “uh-oh!”, which means she was keeping her feelings secret from her friend.

In chapter 54, we have a sneak peek at Sakura’s development as a ninja: After Naruto and Sasuke fight Orochimaru (and pass out), and Lee sacrifices his well-being in order to save her from the Oto team, Sakura cuts her hair as to free herself from Kin’s hold. Up to this point, we know this part is significant because of what Sakura thinks before doing it, but by Ino’s reaction, there’s something far deeper going on (Hey, Ino! Sasuke seems to like girls with long hair, so I’m going to grow mine…).

Her attack against Zaku isn't successful and, after barely hurting him, she has no more energy to continue (so she bites him). And here's when we have Ino’s flashback:

Chapter 54 - The flashback continues but all have been addressed previously.

The rivalry was started solely by Sakura. There’s no denying that Ino took up on that rivalry and started to act consequentially, but she wasn’t the one initiating it.

"I noticed your hair is lot longer, Ino" "What is it to you, Sakura?!!"

Let's acknowledge something, in this specific panel, it was Sakura who started their interaction (in a hostile manner, also) because she wanted to tell Ino about her position in Team 7.

She assumed Ino grew her hair long because of Sasuke -it isn't clear when was their fallout, but it must have been years prior to their graduation, so either they didn't see each other as much (or at all) since they went their separate ways, or Ino grew her hair long shortly after the beginning of the show, so there were at least a few years after their breakup when she still has her hair short.

It's safe to assume Ino did, in fact, keep her hair long for Sasuke's sake, yet it's not confirmed she did so to appeal to him, as she keeps growing it after his departure and it's shown how most people of her clan have their hair in a ponytail style, including her father.

So Ino, you'll never beat me now.

Despite some translations stating that Sakura said “I won’t lose to you anymore” (we were shown at no point in the manga how Sakura exactly lost against Ino), the official translation states otherwise -Sakura never exactly “lost” against Ino, nor Ino against Sakura.

Sakura's statement is based on Sasuke being on the same team as her, therefore, for this fact alone, Ino will never "win". Their whole rivalry is based on Sasuke. Now that Sakura is assigned to the same team as him, she has a better chance of winning his romantic reciprocation, therefore, Sakura's prospects are better than her rival's, which makes her the sole winner.

Yet, regardless of their mutual hostility, Ino still jumps to save her former friend, which means that she still has a deep connection with Sakura. Her face when remembering their childhood was a deeply troubled one, perhaps even mournful. In addition, by this point, Sasuke is unconscious: He isn’t able to see Ino’s heroic act, something Ino is aware of yet acts as if that is the sole reason why she jumped in.

After the fight, we have these panels:

To put some context: Naruto asks Sakura who “these guys are” when seeing Shikamaru, Chöji, Lee, and Ino; and after Sakura “thanks them”, Ino thinks that she’s selling herself short. Ino is shown constantly either telling Sakura or thinking of her as someone pretty and capable yet still self-conscious, even tho Sakura would have likely died had Ino and Team 10 not intervened, as Sasuke awoke after their tactic failed. Ino and Team 10 were saved by Team Gai and Sasuke, not Sakura.

During their fight in the preliminary rounds (CH 71), Sakura is particularly cruel:

First of all, she claims control and power of decision-making over a boy who has rejected her advances twice and who's not even present at the moment (he could, and honestly would, easily deny them both of the romantical reciprocation they sought). She starts their fight by trying to downgrade both Ino’s self-esteem (physically) and status in their “rivalry” (which she claims is now non-existent, as Sakura is the "winner" by being in the same team as Sasuke) -Ino’s words are a response to Sakura’s attitude.

[Kakashi saying that Sakura isn’t mean doesn’t make it automatically true -first, Kakashi doesn’t know Sakura that well as to claim she wouldn’t bully a person just because (she often displayed such an attitude towards Naruto during their first interactions, particularly when she told Sasuke that Naruto was annoying because he was parentless, Kakashi saw and knew none of that). Second, what he knows about Ino and Sakura’s relationship is what he read on a piece of paper -he knows nothing about how they actually interacted, nothing about their “power imbalance”, and, furthermore, he does nothing about Sakura’s insecurities -he hoped that Sakura would come around when the Chünin Exams came, but the whole reason she did so was because of Sasuke’s support.]

Sakura internally acknowledges Ino’s relevance in her life (1 and 2) yet none of that is actually told to Ino -who’s left in the dark. The last impression she possesses of Sakura is about her not being good enough to maintain a friendship outside their respective crushes on the same boy. Sakura, even without them being friends, still seeks Ino’s acknowledgment -the only one who is then made to do something for their relationship is Ino.

Personal opinion: Sakura hasn’t surpassed Ino. Much less at this point in the manga.

It’s Sakura the one who makes their rivalry just about Sasuke (here), while Ino states that she will not allow her to “show her up” (thus, for her, it seems to be more than just their shared crush on a boy, even during Asuma's last speech he tells her not to allow Sakura to win in "ninjutsu and love"), Sakura solely focuses on being on the same team as Sasuke as a signal of superiority; something she did absolutely nothing to gain as it was mere luck:

The teams are to be balanced and that’s why they put the dead last (Naruto) with the Rookie of the Year (Sasuke), there’s no canonical mention of Sakura’s part in the matter. The belief that she was put there because she was the “brightest” is a fanon belief (x). Furthermore, according to the Report Cards in the First Fanbook, Ino was behind Sasuke; making her the second-best overall and the best kunoichi amongst them (x).

However, Ino, canonically speaking, would never be put on the same team as Sasuke, as she's the Yamanaka heir -her destiny was always to be with Chöji and Shikamaru.

Here

I’m not your little tag-along anymore Ino

Sakura says this in order to gain an emotional reaction -Ino is shocked by the words because she's never shown to consider Sakura to be what her former friend claims she used to be. Sakura is then painting the memories of their relationship in a negative light, downgrading it. What for Ino was a real friendship, to Sakura was a relationship of power.

[This is not a negative thing per se, Sakura needed a support system that Ino provided as she was too shy to socialize with anyone. What she's saying now is that she doesn't need Ino in order to interact with others. For Sakura is a positive thing, as she probably hated being "Ino's tag along", however, that doesn't change the negative impact that it has on Ino who never saw Sakura as a burden.]

Sakura's views of their dynamic diminish its relevance in her life and put Ino in the wrong (almost making her the abusive side of the relationship). Ino never reached for Sakura in order to make her her “tag-along”, Sakura was the one who put herself in that position.

I'm not blatantly denying Sakura's views on their former friendship, but from what we can see in canon, those views are either a lie she tells Ino to emotionally drag her during their match (stated before by Kakashi, she wants Ino to take her seriously), or a twisted version of the events transpired.

Much like with Sasuke, the fact that Sakura puts the weight of her well-being on another person’s shoulders means that she’s not responsible for the outcome or what her actions might entail: That’s why she makes Ino responsible for their fallout -hadn’t Ino liked the same boy, she wouldn’t have ended their relationship.

Sakura calling Ino a witch.

At the end of their fight, is Ino who -again, reaches out to Sakura and waits for her to wake, and, again: She gives her support.

We have a new interaction between them in CH 93 -where we see both of them visiting Sasuke in the hospital and bringing him a flower, there, we get to see them talking outside a ninja setting and inside Ino's flower shop.

1) It's established Sakura doesn't visit the flower shop until then.

2) They still bicker over Sasuke, the basis of their relationship hasn't changed after the Chünin Exams, but they seem to get along better.

3) Sakura learned the flowers' meaning in order to compete with Ino.

They even sit together in CH 99 to see the one-on-one fights of the last round of the exams, and while both Ino and Sakura are equally concerned about Sasuke, it's Ino the one who tells Sakura to cheer Naruto on during his match. How is Ino this "bad person who diminished Sakura" when she shows nothing but concern for her crush (Sasuke), her former friend (Sakura), and her rival's teammate (Naruto)? Furthermore, in CH 105, Ino realizes Sakura's change in mood when she admits (internally) to being somewhat jealous of Naruto.

After Shikamaru's match, once Sasuke appears, Ino compliments Sakura's team, praising both Sasuke and Naruto; Sakura's reaction isn't shown as the main focus is Lee -who hears Ino speaking-, but it amazes me how many people try to paint Ino's character as "shallow" and a "bully" when she has done nothing but encourage and praise those around her even when they're not close enough to hear her.

Then, after Sasuke's Retrieval Arc, Ino even goes as far as to look for Sakura once Shimamaru's team returns (x), and she even prioritizes Chöji before Sasuke (who they don't know actually left, x). How is Ino such a shallow, careless monster (who doesn't truly care for Sakura) if she goes out of her way to find her and inform her of their friends' return? Wouldn't have she taken the opportunity to visit Sasuke by herself? Wouldn't she have chosen to visit her crush first rather than Chöji if she was that obsessed with him and against Sakura?

In a way, and this is not to diminish some of the writing problems the author has, Ino is a nice representation of how Kishimoto is actually capable of writing a girl with a simple crush on a boy, who still prioritizes friends and comrades above the man she likes. Sakura's behavior, therefore, can't be attributed to Kishimoto not "knowing how to write women", but to him giving Sakura specific characteristics that just happen to be disliked by the fandom. In retaliation, her stans decide to blame such personality traits on his "incapability" to write female characters before giving them the actual relevance they have over Sakura's character.

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master-amaris · 8 months

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Blood Bond - A Naruto Fanfiction

|| Multi Chapter || Uchiha-centric || Canon Divergent AU || Alternate Storyline: Uchiha coup d'état instead of massacre || featuring OCs || Angst || Light Gore || weekly updates since I already finished writing this fic || author's Note at the end of the chapter

Itachi and Shisui fail to stop their clan. Instead, Fugaku follows through with his coup d'état and brings Konoha to its knees in a single night, changing the fate of his clan, his sons, and the entire ninja world forever…

Chapter One Before You Start a War, You better Know what You're Fighting For

"This is the point of no return, isn't it?" Mikoto asked when she saw his hands dripping with blood. "Yes," Fugkau replied, pulling the door shut behind him. Her arms tightened their grip around Sasuke's body, who slept on her lap with his cheek against her chest. "All of them?" "Almost." She watched her husband rubbing the damp red from his skin with a white towel, leaving dark edges under his fingernails. "Danzō is still missing." "And… Itachi?" Mikoto only managed a whisper. "What about him?"

No answer. She assumed that spoke for itself, and the conclusion filled her eyes with tears.

"Please, Fugaku." She started to shiver. "If he-... Or if you-... I just want to know if-..." A first tear ran down her cheek, allowing her to see clearly for an instant before her vision blurred again and cleared up once more as the second tear beaded from the corner of her eye. "Is he all right?"

Fugaku put the towel aside. "Don't worry, he's alive. We confronted and arrested him near the Nakano River."

Her heart was pounding so frantically that she feared it might awaken the boy in her arms. "And what will happen with him?"

Fugaku brushed the blood-soaked shirt from his body. A fresh one lay ready for him to unfold. "That's yet to be decided. But treason is treason, Mikoto."

Mikoto brushed the tears from her face with the back of her hand. "I see..."

Silence. For minutes. But Mikoto had this feeling that even without words, Fugaku could hear what she was thinking anyway.

"I'll do what I can," Fugaku said eventually. "But I don't know if I can help."

"You must try." Mikoto could barely speak, trying so hard to hold back the tears. Her voice sounded painfully harsh. "Itachi is our son, despite everything. Please don't forget that. I don't want to lose him!"

"We already have." Fugaku stood with his back facing her; that way, she couldn't see that his eyes were also starting to glisten treacherously. "Itachi picked his side. Even if I succeed in convincing the others to spare his life, it won't change anything. He made his choice, and he won't change his mind. He's gone, out of reach." Fugaku's shoulders trembled. "It would be less painful if he... If he was..."

"If he was dead," Mikoto whispered. She lifted Sasuke a few inches, pulled her legs out from under his body, and carefully bedded him back down on the tatami mats. "Yes, it would be," she continued as she rose and walked toward her husband. " Being allowed to mourn our son's death would be less painful than having to despise him for his betrayal."

Eleven steps separated her from Fugaku: ...nine. Ten. Eleven...

Mikoto wrapped her arms around his stomach and nestled her chin against his shoulder, kissing his neck. With a sigh, Fugaku let his cheek sink against her hair. "I never will."

"Of course not," she mumbled, "He is your son. You will always love him." And you'll never recover from losing him. It will always hurt. "Just never let anyone but me know how you truly feel. They would misunderstand your pain and lose faith in you."

Fugaku turned around in her embrace. I know, the bleak expression on his face declared, and Mikoto's heart wanted to break when she saw his bloodshot eyes and wet cheeks.

She sobbed, digging her fingers into the folds of his shirt. "Yet, if they insist on his execution, you mustn't hesitate. Just do it." She shivered again. "Do it yourself and make sure it's quick. Don't let our son suffer."

Fugaku raised his left hand, grazing her temple with his fingertips, brushing her jaw and cheek, and finally stoking her lips before touching them with his. "I won't," he whispered into the kiss.

Heaving a sigh, Mikoto wrapped both arms around his neck and snuggled closer into his arms as a knock tapped against the door behind them.

"It's time, Commander. We're ready to go."

Mikoto felt the Fugaku's reluctance as he broke away from her lips. "In a minute," he answered through the closed door. The sudden harshness in his voice gave Mikoto's heart and stomach a twinge. "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up."

"Copy that."

Mikoto wavered while listening to footsteps echoing away. Then, she brushed the tears off Fugaku's face. Despite her own, she forced a smile. "Are you ready?" "Determined by all means."

Fugaku took her hands in his and blew them a kiss before carefully pushing past her to walk the eleven steps to the sleeping Sasuke.

Mikoto remained in place. Fresh tears filled her eyes as she watched her husband kneel down beside the child, stroking back his black hair to kiss his forehead. "I love you, son," Fugaku whispered. "When you wake up, it will be over. Everything will be all right at last." He kissed Sasuke a second time. "I promise."

"Have you ever put your hands inside a human's head?" Natsume asked.

His right pointer and middle finger lodged in a young unconscious Uchiha's eye socket, gushing more blood than it could hold.

Satoshi scrunched up his nose. "No."

"You won't be able to make that claim in a few seconds anymore. Come here."

Reluctantly, Satoshi drew a few steps closer and settled on his knees in the grass next to Natsume. The pressure of his knees squeezed seeped blood from the ground. It welled to the surface and soaked the fabric of his gray pants.

"My fingers are plugging the wound he's bleeding from," Natsume explained. "I can close it, but I need a minute or two to prepare the jutsu. You need to keep the pressure in the meantime to make sure he doesn't lose more blood."

Satoshi gulped. "Are you serious?"

"I rarely joke about people bleeding out, you know." The unconscious Uchiha under Natsume's hand twitched. "Come on, go ahead - before he comes around."

"Do I disinfect my hands first?" Satoshi asked, his gaze glued to Natsume's hand; the upper thirds of his pointer and middle finger disappeared between eyelashes and lids.

Natsume raised an eyebrow. "What do you think, huh?"

"Sorry." Satoshi cleared his throat, "I've never done anything like this before."

A small plastic bottle of disinfectant was lying in the grass beside the unconscious young man, whose black T-shirt was decorated with the Uchiha emblem. Satoshi's hand trembled as he picked the bottle up and pressed its beak-shaped cap down several times.

Fine spray wetted his skin and gathered into a thin film, which Satoshi carefully rubbed on both hands. The smell of alcohol burned in his nose, and the hairs on his arms erected - partly because of the cool disinfectant spray, partly because of the thought of poking a bleeding eye socket. He reached out for the fleshy cavity but hesitated at the sight of his fingernails: all at once, they seemed like claws.

"Baka!" hissed Natsume as Satoshi, without warning, put his hand in his mouth in a swift motion to nibble his fingernails down to the tip. "Now you can disinfect your hands again! Why don't you do that before?"

Satoshi picked up the disinfectant spray a second time. "Sorry," he repeated, spitting out the thin scrap of horn he had plucked off his fingernails. "I've really never done anything like this before."

"Trust me," Natsume sighed, "I can see that: you don't have to tell me every few seconds."

"Very helpful, man. Really. Thanks."

Natsume clicked his tongue. "Now, put your fingers in there already!"

Satoshi floundered as he carefully dipped his pointer into the puddle of red, with his middle finger following.

That's just a jar of strawberry jam that's been sitting in the sun too long, he implored himself. That's why it's warm. That's why it's sticky. Because it's melted strawberry jam, not blood: sweet jam that attracts wasps and molds if you don't put it in the fridge.

The blood smacked as Satoshi's fingers displaced it from the eye socket. It spilled over the rims and ran down Uchiha's pale face: over his temples into his ears; over his cheeks, chin, and neck into his clothes; over his brows and forehead into the roots of his black, shaggy hair. The socket wall felt like the sludge of rotten fruit, and the blood felt even stickier, slimier, than expected. More like syrup than jam. Scraps of coagulated blood floated in the pool, and Satoshi had the impression that they had a life of their own, actively wrapping his fingers.

"I think I'm going to be sick..." he muttered. His wrist bumped against Natsume's as they got in each other's way in the narrow eye socket.

"You got it?" Natsume asked.

Satoshi's fingers slid to Natsume's spot. Something pulsed against his skin, and he felt like tearing into a squashed slug, yet he bravely swallowed his nausea. "Got it."

Had Tetsuka Amaya not dislocated her left shoulder during a mission two weeks earlier, much would have ensued differently that evening. She probably would have been with Natsume and Satohi instead of hovering over the sink at home, burying her face in the red pulp of a watermelon. With each bite, drops of the sticky juice dripped down her fingers and splashed into the drain with hollow "plong!" sounds.

She stood in the kitchen barefoot, wrapped in a white towel with dark blue spots. Little beads of sweat glistened on her deep brown skin from the hot bath she had taken a few minutes ago, with her hair still damp from the shower she had taken before climbing into the tub. Coiffed into a bunch of neat twists, the strands stuck to her shoulders and her back. Little drops of water ran down the lengths of her dense, violet curls and settled in their tips until they grew too heavy and splashed on the white floor tiles.

A fresh breeze blew through the open kitchen window, carrying the words of a harsh voice from a distance: "All villagers, retreat to the evacuation tunnels immediately! This is an order from the Hokage! Konoha is in danger! Keep calm and look out for each other!" Amaya heard the call but did not perceive it. It was yet too distant, too muffled to stand out; just one sound among many alongside birdsong, the tinkling wind chimes outside the window, and the barking dogs of the Inuzuka whose estate was across the street. "All ninja assemble at the 34th training area! Wait for further instructions!"

Amaya let the gnawed melon rind slap into the sink and licked the sweet juice from her fingers and lips before reaching for the next piece. A few brown-black seeds plopped onto her bare toes as she bit from this second slice but didn't lean forward over the sink fast enough. At that moment, the doorbell rang. Smacking her lips, Amaya squinted at the clock above the stove.

About an hour too early, claimed its hands.

Amaya put the nibbled piece of melon back on the plate and wiped her mouth and fingers with a checkered dish towel. "Not ready yet, Anko," she shouted, advancing to the house entrance, slurring her words as she used a toothpick to pick pulp from her teeth. "But there's some sake in the fridge if you want to wait until I-"

Amaya broke off because she was close enough to the front door now to see that two people were waiting behind the sliding door: between the bars, their bodies cast crooked shadows on the cream-colored rice paper. A fist pounded against the wooden frame.

"Open up!" "There's a problem!"

Amaya tucked the towel neatly under her armpits because, judging from the voices, the shadows outside the door belonged to two men. Cautiously, she pulled the door open, a small crack to peer outside, facing two pairs of blood-red Sharingan eyes. "Yes?"

"We're here to see Tetsuka Jun," said one of the two men, a balding giant. He towered over Amaya by two heads, his companion still by one." He is to report to the conference room of the Hokage residence immediately. Sandaime's orders."

The sun was already hanging quite low over the horizon, casting its light on the Tetsuka house at a steep angle, blinding Amaya. She had to shield her eyes with her hand to keep from blinking. "My father is on a mission," she explained, "I don't know when he'll be back."

The men exchanged a quick glance. The bald guy shrugged.

"What's your name, girl?" the other asked. His eyes sparkled as he looked at Amaya.

She pulled the towel tighter. "Tetsuka Amaya."

"Tetsuka Amaya," he repeated, nodding slowly. Amaya suddenly remembered very clearly how she had seen a hissing rattlesnake by the roadside for the first time many years ago. Its eyes had sparkled in a way similar to his. "Then you will attend in place of your father. No one will mind. As long as the Tetsuka clan is represented..."

Amaya shook her head. "Represented at what? What's going on?"

"All villagers, retreat to the evacuation tunnels immediately! This is an order from the Hokage! Konoha is in danger! Keep calm and look out for each other! All ninja assemble at the 34th training area! Wait for further instructions!"

Instinctively, Amaya turned her head in the direction from which she suspected the call. This time, she perceived it: during the past few minutes, it had moved from the center of the village closer to the district in the south where Amaya lived with her father. Her heartbeat quickened.

"What's going on?" she asked again. Her voice started to tremble.

The guy with the sparkling eyes waved her off, "You'll find out soon enough." "Just hurry," his companion added. "Remember, come to the conference room of the Hokage's residence. It is very urgent."

Without another word of explanation, the two men turned their backs on Amaya and strode down the three steps of the staircase that connected the front yard and porch. The Uchiha crest emblazoned the backs of their gray shirts.

Amaya remained in the doorway, perplexed, watching the two men with a thumping heart and an unpleasant tug in her lower abdomen as they took the narrow gravel path through the front yard, past the yellow chrysanthemums, the purple-speckled toad lilies, and the golden-orange azaleas. The gravel crunched under their feet until they passed the brass gate in the garden fence, overgrown with ivy.

Dust swirled from the road as the two Uchiha crossed it in a diagonal line. They stopped in front of the wooden gate to the Inuzuka estate.

On the gate was a sign showing a black dog with ruffled fur. The animal wore an eye patch over its right eye, and its left ear was missing. The retracted chaps exposed yellowed fangs. "I need five seconds to get to the door," red characters informed. "And you?"

Undeterred, the bald Uchiha's fist pounded against the wooden gate. "Open up!" And the other added, "There's a problem!"

Behind the wall, a storm of growling, yapping, and howling erupted, punctuated by hissing "Shhh!" sounds or shouts of "Off! Off!" before the gate swung open. Kiba, a little boy with brown hair and fair skin, appeared. On his head, he carried Akamaru, his white puppy.

"Yes?" Amaya heard the little boy ask. "We're here to see Inuzuka Tsume." "'Mom! Here's a baldie who wants to see you!"

Amaya took a deep breath and retreated into the house to get dressed. She began to understand, The Hokage is gathering the clan leaders. Whatever's happening, it's bad.

She had no way of guessing that the Hokage was already dead.

Dividers by @/ohmarigold

Autor's note: I'm so happy and excited to finally share this fic after putting so much time, thought, and passion into it. This project started with the question, what if Fugaku's coup d'etat had been successful? As I began to imagine this alternative scenario, I also tackled the question of how the Uchiha would've pulled that off and found that this was an entire story on its own. And I can already promise a lot of angst as it gets pretty gritty :D

Thank you so much for sticking around to the end of the chapter! I really hope you liked the kick-off. If so, please consider reblogging, and if you take the time and energy to leave a comment, I'll be forever grateful.

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