(The previous night)

Inochi and her squad entered the fire nation and stopped for refreshments. Gaara, who was now surrounded by four shinobi who just had a bloodbath didn't mind the awkward silence and gobbled up on the snacks that Inochi brought with her.

-"Aren't you going to tell him anything?" Sajin scooted close to Inochi and whispered in her ear.

Inochi looked at Gaara. She could still feel her chakra inside his head which was what stopping him from regaining his memories. In some sense, he was partially under her genjutsu.

-"He is partially under my genjutsu. This is a technique I learned from the Yamanaka clan's leader when I was younger. Its the same tech-" Inochi stopped before giving away information about her own past.

- "its the same technique....?" Sajin asked further but Inochi just avoided her. She looked around to see if Kakashi had heard her but thankfully both him and Shisui were lost in their own thoughts.

- "Anyways, I don't think that taking him out of the genjutsu is correct at this point. Not only are we drained of chakra, but we are also injured"

-"Just use a healing seal then? I am sure you have brought loads of them"

-"I don't have any more of those. Three of us have used two healing seals while Shisui san and oniisan have used one each"

Sajin ignored Inochi's words and went on to dig through the items in her bags. While Sajin was busy searching for the seals, Gaara went over to Inochi.

-"Umi neechan... Is it not your real name? Are you really not Nagisa Kumimono?" Gaara asked in the most earnest tone. Hearing this every one in the tent went silent. Inochi's face however, softened with the question.

-"I am not Nagisa Kumimono, Gaara sama. My real name is Inochi Nohara. And I am a shinobi from the village hidden in the leaf, Konoha" Everyone's breath hitched as they heard Inochi's honest answer. Kakashi and Shisui braced for some kind of sudden outburst while Sajin had an alarmed expression all over her face.

Inochi however, pulled Gaara over her lap and hugged him tightly.

- "Gaara sama, I am right now unable to completely tell you what's going on. But I promise you I will resolve all your questions once we finally reach konoha and settle down. By tomorrow night, we would reach Konoha so I hope you could keep your faith in me till then"

Gaara didn't say anything for a few seconds after which he cuddled back into Inochi's embrace. For months Inochi was his safe place and he couldn't just suddenly took off his faith from her. As the fire went off, the three shinobi went to sleep while Inochi whispered a lullaby to Gaara. Gaara clutched his scarf as he drifted off to sleep but only after muttering a faint " I love you" to the only person he he loved with his whole heart.

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(The night of the massacre)

That night there was an eerie silence enveloping the whole village of Konoha. The tension could be sensed as the hostility of the Uchiha towards the leaf grew more with every passing day. Even the villagers who had no clue about the the coup or the growing hatred of the Uchiha felt the need to keep their distance from the officials.

As all the lights went off the two ninjas swiftly entered the Uchiha compound, to the designated rendezvous spot. They had the foolproof plan ready and were just waiting for the right time.

Itachi was already braced up for attack and avoided any kind of small talk with the masked man. Even the smallest of things could lead him astray from the decisions he had taken. He absolutely had no faith in the masked man but he also knew that any kind of mistake could cost him his life. The man who Itachi mistook to be Madara Uchiha, one of the greatest Shinobi in the history, was not someone he would like to go against at that point.

-"Are we sure on the plan?" The man asked Itachi out of nowhere.

-"Yes. You will take the higher officials and I the lower ranks. I won't interfere with your side and you won't with mine" Itachi answered simultaneously without having to ponder much on the deal.

-"Good" The man nodded as if praising Itachi for his promptness.

As the full moon went straight overhead, both of the ninjas jumped into action. Itachi rushed to the western portion of the compound which contained the fellow residents of the clan.

The first house came in a matter of seconds. Itachi entered with ease and sensed four chakras. He swiftly went inside the room to see four people snoring on their futons with no worries. Itachi's hand tightened onto his katana as he took it and sliced right through the neck of the patriarch. Hearing the bit of disturbance his wife woke up but before she could see or sense anything Itachi swiftly sent her to death too. The two children were his next victims who, without any noise, were killed off in their sleep.

Itachi inspected the house for further inhabitants and left after removing any evidence of his actions. He continued slaughtering the people one by one among whom some saw his bloodied sword and red eyes while others were peacefully sent off without any pain or fear. Some tried to resist and fight back, but more than the lack of power against Itachi it was the fear towards the Uchiha prodigy which paralyzed them. None of his victims screamed as they were dumbstruck by the sudden catastrophe.

Soon the moment came that Itachi dreaded the most. He stood in front of Izumi's home while dripping in the blood of his victims. He reluctantly tightened his hold on the katana but before he could slide open the door a Kunai came straight at him aimed towards his head.

Itachi jumped back from the entrace only to see a silhouette lunge at him with a katana. Itachi countered the attack with his sword and as their katanas clashed, Itachi recognised the chakra.

-"It can't be..." Izumi whispered as she pushed away Itachi and took out her kunais for another attack.

Itachi was thinking of running away but he knew he couldn't just leave Izumi like that. If he didn't kill her, the masked man will, something he could never let to happen.

-"Its you isn't it, Itachi kun?"

Itachi's eyes widened as he let go of his guard. Izumi dashed towards him in that second and he tripped while trying to parry off the attack. Standing up again while trying to shake off his shock, he took off his mask and let Izumi see his full face which gleamed red under the moonlight.

- "How did you know?"

- "In none of our training sessions or missions did I reach a culprit faster than the Uchiha prodigy" Izumi braced up once again. "Why? Why did you kill them?"

-"They are not the only ones I intend to kill. I am sorry you got dragged into this mess, Izumi" Itachi threw a bunch of kunai towards Izumi who skillfully countered them all with her Katana. But the moment she dodged the last one, Itachi suddenly appeared just before her with his mangekyo sharingan glaring into her eyes.

- "Sharingan!" Itachi used his sharingan's power to put Izumi in a genjutsu. Izumi fell unconsciousness and lost physical control. However just before she could hit the hard concrete, Itachi caught her body and laid it down.

- "I am sorry" Itachi's eyes darkened with guilt and remorse. He took a last glace and turned to leave, but before he could even stand up, Izumi's eyes shot open.

Izumi punched Itachi hard under his chin which made him falter backwards as she stood up straight taking back her fighting stance.

-"What!? HOW?" Itachi was shocked to say in the least. He stood there dumbfounded while rubbing his chin. "How did you even break the genjutsu" Itachi panicked for a second but brushed off any kind of doubt. He was determined to not harm Izumi, and to only let her die through his genjutsu so he charged at her once again to finish with his plan.

-"ITACHI LISTEN TO ME! Shisui san is still alive!" Izumi shouted while closing her eyes. She completely let her guard off and was now at the mercy of Itachi who stopped dead in his tracks.

Those words were enough to petrify Itachi out of his wits. He stumbled over the concrete as he lost control of his body. Izumi carefully opened her eyes to see a distraught Itachi slowly taking in the fact that his brother was still alive. He took his face in his hands and pondered over all the things that had led to the moment. He didn't even bother to question Izumi as he knew from her demeanor that she wasn't lying.

Suddenly he jerked up his head as his eyes widened in realisation.

-"That man, he is still killing the people in the compound!" Itachi shuddered as he moved his arms to stand up and go stop the masked man.

-"ITACHI! STOP!" Izumi tried pulling him back but Itachi did not budge.

Izumi atlast let his sleeves go and shouted in frustration.

- "will you EVER listen to me YOU DUMBASS!!" Izumi's sharingan activated as tears rolled down her cheeks. Itachi stopped and turned around only to confront a face he was quite familiar of. During his missions, Inochi held the exact face of annoyance and frustration whenever he would go out on his own to finish a plan. "Is this why I failed to see the bigger picture? Because I refused to take help?" Itachi muttered just when he sensed a familiar chakra.

-"ITACHI!!! What the actual hell is happening here???" Inochi's voice could be heared echoing in the dead silence of the night.

Itachi looked in front of him only to see Inochi ,who he hadn't heard from in months, jumping off from a roof and stomping towards him. Before Itachi could comprehend if it was just an illusion or not, Inochi took him by his collar in rage.

- "Have you A B S O L U T E L Y LOST YOUR MIND!? WHAT were you even planning to do?" Inochi gritted her teeth as she threw Itachi to the concrete. "DID YOU REALLY STOOP TO THIS LEVEL? ITACHI UCHIHA" Inochi groaned in disgust. She couldn't come at terms with the fact that the friend she looked up to the most chose the most immoral way to tackle the coup. "You killed children.. Itachi. SLEEPING children. If stopping a coup meant killing half of the village WE WOULD HAVE DONE THAT MONTHS AGO YOU IDIOT"

Itachi couldn't bring himself to look up to Inochi who was already raging with fury.

-"I have nothing to say..." Itachi stammered.

-"Inochi chan, this is an emergency. We shouldn't be fighting among ourselves right now!" Izumi rushed to Itachi's side and pulled him up. " Itachi kun just told me something about a masked man, do you know anything about it?"

- " Yes, I know about him too well. That masked man....I cannot believe he is back here after all this time" Inochi cursed under her breath.

- "We need to stop him, he is too dangerous... and powerful" Itachi stated.

- "Yeah no shit" Inochi sneered at Itachi's comment but knew that the masked man was too much of a threat to be left in the hands of Kakashi and Tenzo alone who were currently fighting him off. "Let's head there now. Izumi chan, you stay put"

Izumi nodded as she was well versed with the fact that her power level would only create problems for the others.

- "I will take care of the situation here. Go"

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Kakashi and Tenzo were able to distract the masked man, but with great difficulty. Moreover, it was apparent that the masked man was only dodging their attacks and wasn't using his full power.

- "Senpai, where did Inochi ran off to?" Tenzo asked while trying to attack with his wood binding jutsu.

Kakashi kept silent on the question as he knew the intruder was someone who Inochi would want to avoid even in her nightmares. He wished to drive out the masked man before Inochi could join the fight but the man's power was way more than he remembered.

-" Its true that I am not in the best condition nor am I pushing to my limits, but this man's skills are way better than most of the shinobi I have met" Kakashi thought just when Inochi zoomed past him to land a punch on the man.

However instead of connecting her fist to the man's ribs , she went through his body.

- "Ah if it isn't this my dear Inochi chan~" the annoying voice made Inochi shudder in her shoes. Even though she decided to join Kakashi, she wasn't really sure if she would be able to fight at all.

- "INOCHI GET OUT OF HERE! WE WILL HANDLE IT!" Kakashi activated his sharingan. The man slowly turned his focus onto Kakashi from Inochi, thus giving her enough time to create some space between her and the intruder.

- "Aren't you getting ahead of yourself, copying ninja Kakashi? Its 2 against one, and still none of you have been able to land any attack on me"

- "SHUT YOUR TRAP!" Kakashi was pissed. Now that Inochi was in the scene he got more cautious. "CHIDORI!" Kakashi did his handsigns in an incredible speed which could barely be followed by any other ninja and charged at the intruder. At the same time Tenzo used his wood style technique to bind the man to his place.

- "AGAIN WITH THESE PUNY TECHNIQUES. DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS WOULD AFFECT ME?" The man shouted just when he sensed a silhouette approaching him. "UGHH THIS BRAT-"

Itachi lunged at the intruder with his Katana aimed at his arms. Surely enough they went through his body but the moment Itachi got out of his sight to make way for Kakashi's chidori, the man started to get fidgety. Atlast he gave up on defense and used the patent jutsu of the Uchiha class, the fireball, to burn down the wood style jutsu holding on to him and transported to a nearby roof. But just as he turned, another annoying creature appeared;

- "Yo!" Inochi awkwardly greeted out of habit and landed a kick on his face just as he turned, thus tripping him off the the roof.

-"peek-a-boo body jutsu with a time limit of around five minutes and transportations? He has more tricks up his sleeves than I remember" Inochi recollected the time she was attacked by the man. She already knew about the peek-a-boo jutsu but didn't know he could transport as well. However the way he transported felt very familiar to something she has seen before.

Inochi jumped right before the man after giving herself a pep talk. She was no longer a child nor was she weak. She was an elite shinobi of the leaf and she was determined to make it known to whoever planned to harm her.

- "Yo-you joined the fight a second ago like a scaredy cat and now you want to play the hero? Don't make me laugh" The man stood up, snickering at Inochi's foolish bravery. "Inochi chan, don't worry, I haven't yet forgotten about you. Your eyes, they can still be pretty useful for me" The man adjusted his mask and looked up to Inochi.

Inochi felt shivers through her spine as she again heard the voice.

-"His voice, that's more fearsome than his presence for some reason" Inochi started backing up a bit just when the full moon shined brightly onto the intruder's face. Just as the man took a step forward his mask which got cracked due to Inochi's kick broke into half and its right side crumbled to the ground.

- "what the hell...." Inochi's eyes gleamed at the accident. Her fear of the man who almost tortured the life out of her was now completely engulfed with curiosity.

-"Your face..." Inochi pointed at the exposed right side of his face covered with what looked like white fibres, something completely alien to the human body. His eyes shot wide open at the sudden realisation of his identity close to being exposed, and thus in the moonlight his eyes bearing the Mangekyo Sharingan gleamed bloody red.

- "Ah shit...." The man groaned and clutched his bare face. As he turned around, he sighed at the sight of a kunai approaching right at his head and dodged it with his jutsu.

-"They are really annoying and weak. Using the same old tricks on me as if they don't know I can dodge them easily" The man thought as the kunai passed through him but the moment it left , his eyes widened at the realisation as he transported himself in front of Inochi, who was standing just 10 feet from him, and caught the kunai.

- "What......" Inochi stared at the sharingan glaring at her , inches from her face "are you even doing?" Inochi muttered as she felt the masked man's hand over hers, clutching the kunai right before it impaled her eyes. "Did he just..."

Inochi pushed aside her doubts and parried off from the intruder's clutches.

-"Did you just try to protect me?" Inochi inquired just as Shisui, the one who threw the kunai, Kakashi, Itachi and Tenzo reached beside her.

- "Don't be a fool, Inochi chan" The man shrugged. "Your sharingan... its too precious and I just cannot let you die unless I see what those eyes would be able to do when they atlast reach their full potential"

-"Full potential?" Tenzo's tongue slipped in confusion as he saw the faces of the Uchihas around him darken at the statement.

-"The full potential of the Sharingan.. only achieved by one Uchiha in the history of Shinobi... The Eternal Mangekyo" Inochi stated.