Naruto : Monsters

To make the Uchiha's demise appear like the actions of a single mad man rather than the mechanisms of the village, they needed to appear as blindsided by the incident as everyone else. So they allowed the natural chaos and confusion that would follow such an event to reign for a time before they reestablished order.

...

For the following two days after the massacre the village was so barren of ninjas that had a foreign army tried to invade, they would have probably succeeded. And in that forty-eight hour period, the whole of Konoha was in chaos as it scrambled to recall its ninjas and tried to fill the gaps that the Uchiha left behind with their absence.

Which was perhaps the only reason why I had gotten away with it.

A hole in the village's security was deliberately created for Itachi to escape. I just happened to use that security flaw to kill Sasuke. Had I chosen any other night, I would have failed. Sometimes despite all the hours spent planning and honing your skills, it was only luck that determined if you win or lose.

In the end, it all came down to luck.

And that night luck was with me.

They didn't bother to send any ninjas to guard Sasuke, why would they? They all knew that the 'threat' Itachi posed to him did not exist so he was safe. And with the village's defences so dangerously thin as it were, with the police force completely decimated, they could ill afford to spare even a single man to guard someone who they knew was in no danger.

They were just as shocked as everyone else when they woke up the following morning only to find him missing.

They hadn't realised until almost half a day later. The nurses noticed he was absent from his room and had reported it in but they did not panic, believing that he had hidden himself somewhere nearby to grieve, needing time alone to cope with the shock of losing his entire family. It was only after the staff, and then some guards they called in to help, failed to find him did they begin to realise something was wrong.

They never did end up finding out what happened to him.

And perhaps, in the end, they were better off for it.

None among them had wanted Sasuke to live, not the Clan Heads, not the Anbu commander, and maybe not even Sarutobi. It was only their promise to Itachi that stayed their hand and saved him from sharing the same fate as the rest of his clan.

And while they did make an effort to search for him, the simple truth of the matter was they were happy to have failed because no one wanted him to be found. He was a loose thread, unfinished business, and a threat to the village and their families, but because their hands were tied it was a threat they could not take care of.

So when he went missing, when they couldn't find him anywhere in the village, more than one among them felt relief. With him gone, the issue of the Uchiha Clan would finally come to a close and they could say with complete honesty that they had nothing to do with it. So even though the clans made a show of desperately searching, in secret they celebrated this turn of events.

No matter what Sasuke's fate was, it no longer mattered to them.

If an outsider had killed him, that was fine. It got rid of their unfinished business while leaving their hands entirely clean. If he had committed suicide from the grief over the loss of his clan and the betrayal of his brother, that was even better. 

If another of the Hidden Villages had managed to take advantage of lowered security to sneak in and kidnap him then that was fine too; Itachi will track them down soon enough and his wrath will fall upon their village instead of Konoha. And if it was one of their own who took care of Sasuke, well, it wouldn't do to look too deeply into the matter.

So long as they never learned the truth they could tell Itachi with a clear conscious that they had nothing to do with Sasuke's disappearance, and with Itachi's Sharingan – whose skill with it was so prodigious that it was said to be able to see through all lies – he could take one look at their faces and know they spoke only the truth. They honestly didn't know what happened to him, and thus they could not be held accountable for Sasuke's fate.

Somehow, I doubt Itachi saw it that way.

Though I desperately wanted to know what Itachi's response was to his brother's disappearance my father didn't bring up, and I didn't dare ask. No matter how much time has passed, I didn't want to show the slightest bit of interest in Sasuke. These Shinobi have shown themselves to be far more cunning than I ever gave them credit for; it wasn't impossible that they might have suspected me and simply decided not to look too deeply into it, so it was best not to take the chance just to satisfy my curiosity.

But there was more to the tale of the Uchiha.

The story did not end there.

For among the Clan Leaders, the Anbu commander and the Hokage, there was one more man involved in their massacre.

He was there during every meeting, standing by the Hokage's side like an obedient lapdog, or perhaps a shadow would have been more appropriate. Yes, a Kage's shadow, that was the best way to describe him.

He never said a word during those meetings, never contributed anything, just stood by his master's side, observing silently, judging all with his single watchful eye.

He was an unassuming man, slight and frail. At first glance, he would have appeared harmless, a crippled old man well past his time. With a lame leg, one working arm and but a single eye, what threat did he pose to a room full of experienced killers?

Not a single person in the room was fooled. They knew who he was.

Even Gods cast shadows.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, the Professor, the Monkey Summoner, he was all of these things and more. But during his prime, when he was in the peak of his power he was known by one other name, one that was both a praise and a warning. To the people of Konoha, Sarutobi was a beloved father figure, adored and revered, but to the rest of the Shinobi world, he was a monster. He was hailed as the 'God of Shinobi', a title he earned because in a world full of killers, he was unrivalled at his skill in killing.

A God among killers.

And like every man had a shadow, so too did God.

That was the title given to the man who forever stood by God's side. 'God's Shadow'.

The darkness born from God.

Utterly loyal, absolutely obedient, the Shadow only moved to fulfil God's will. In the entire village there was not a man more obedient to the Hokage, or more trusted by him. To make sure God's hand remained clean, he, the shadow, would go where God must not tread, do what only devils dared do.

Assassination.

Child soldiers.

Genocide.

Betrayal.

There was not a thing he would not do. No act too vile, no sin too cruel, no crime too reprehensible for him. Like a fanatic fighting in the name of his God, all was justified in his eyes.

In the room full of killers, he was perhaps the most blood-soaked of them all, and only the Hokage had nothing to fear from him. To the rest of the Elemental Nations, he was a bogeyman.

A shadow.

The shadow had a name.

They call him Danzo.

And now he has come for me.

...

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