Chapter 28: International Tensions

"As you may have already heard through rumors, the Uchiha Clan was massacred yesterday," announced their sensei with a serious expression as they met for their usual morning meeting before starting their training. "These are dire times."

"What happened, Sensei? Who could do something like that? Wasn't the Uchiha Clan one of the strongest clans in Konoha?" asked Haruto, his face filled with shock as his hand unconsciously moved to his katana.

"Hana and you both knew the culprit personally. It was Itachi Uchiha, the genius of the Uchiha Clan," replied Inoichi, dropping the bombshell on the three. Well, the two, since Tekku already knew what had happened.

Both Hana and Haruto reacted with shock to the news. Someone they went to class with had betrayed their village by killing his entire clan. While Haruto sent a strange concerned look at Tekku, Hana asked with worry and a small hint of hope, "Did anyone from the Uchiha Clan survive?" hoping that her friend Izumi had made it, as she was close to Itachi. Maybe he had spared her.

"There is indeed one survivor. He spared his younger brother Sasuke, who is currently in a coma. I am not aware of anyone else, but I don't have access to much information since this is a pure ANBU investigation and the details are highly restricted," explained Inoichi, aware that his role as a clan leader didn't grant him full knowledge. "However, as an expert in psychology, I will likely be responsible for treating Sasuke."

'Of course, they won't allow many people to participate in this investigation. They need to eliminate any evidence involving the village. If the other clans learned that one of them was wiped out by the village, it would destabilize the entire situation,' scoffed Tekku internally, patting Hana's back to offer support. She had just learned that she lost a friend.

"What will happen to Sasuke?" Tekku asked.

"He will receive all the necessary treatment and live with a shinobi for a while to be protected and learn to take care of himself. Once he is stable enough, he can choose, similar to you, whether he wants to stay in the orphanage or live on his own. It won't be a problem for him since he is now the sole owner of all Uchiha clan assets," explained Inoichi naturally.

'And the owner of a library full of copied jutsu written by a clan famous for their ability to copy jutsu,' mused Tekku, realizing a new opportunity. 'The ANBU won't be able to take it, as Sasuke is aware of the library. A little academy student won't be able to protect such a large library. Perfect.'

"Will there be a war?" continued Tekku, getting to one of the core problems of the current situation. Although his impact on this world was minimal, the butterfly effect could have spun things so far out of proportion that some crazy Kage or Council decided it was an opportunity to start the Fourth Ninja World War.

"Let's hope not. But the news has definitely spread to the other villages. All major villages have civilian spies in the others, and they will send this kind of major news back to their own village," explained Inoichi seriously, a hint of worry glimmering behind his eyes. "But this brings us to the crux of the situation. All shinobi will have to work harder to project our strength to the other villages."

"What should we do, Sensei? Konoha is the strongest village; let's show them our strength!" proclaimed Haruto, snapped out of his thoughts and no longer staring at the back of Tekku's head.

"Well, we will have to split up for a while. We need the strength of all our strongest shinobi in the village to project our power. The weaker ones will have to fulfill lesser tasks. But I have another mission that I can't share," explained Inoichi.

'Most likely taking care of Sasuke and gathering all possible intelligence from the massacre. Not that Danzo will allow the truth to spread; the brains of the Uchiha Clan are probably already destroyed. And although the Third Hokage has probably learned from Itachi how Danzo manipulated the events, just ordering the disbandment of Root won't do much. Danzo will never let go of his private army. Well, at least he isn't on the Elder Council anymore if things go as in canon,' analyzed Tekku.

"Since I am occupied with my own mission, you will have your own. This time without me as your leader. You will have a temporary Chunin leader instead. Your mission is to strengthen the border with Takigakure at the Northern Outpost. You will be sent with other Chunin and Genin to bolster the outpost's strength and show a strong presence in front of the Land of Earth. Be aware that the Land of Earth is the most likely candidate to start a war with us. So you will be right on their front line," explained Inoichi with a somber tone. "You are only expected to perform miscellaneous tasks like supply runs and assist with border patrols, but there is a real possibility of landing in a conflict. I expect you to work together and never forget your teamwork."

"Yes, Sensei!" said all three Genin with determination.

"Good. You need to be at the main gate tomorrow morning at sunrise. Your temporary team leader is a veteran Chunin named Kurenai Yuuhi. She will be waiting for you at the gate with the other teams heading toward the border. Be careful; Iwa isn't an easy opponent," warned their Sensei before dismissing the meeting.

The three genin, now relatively seasoned veterans in this kind of thing by now with multiple C-rank missions under their belts, including combat ones, nodded to each other before splitting up and heading towards the village to prepare their supplies for the mission. This Mission was after all a B-Rank one, if they learned one thing by now, it was that preparation was key.

'Huh, we're with Kurenai, and she's still a Chunin. Well, it makes sense since she only became a Jonin shortly before the start of the series, as Hinata's team was her first. But her strength should be at least on the Tokubetsu Jonin level with her expertise in genjutsu. Her promotion to that rank shouldn't be far away,' thought Tekku as he bought a new stock of different soldier pills and weapons. He also sealed fresh supplies of real food onto the seals on his body, as it was much nicer than just living off pills.

Shinobi without fuinjutsu had to save space on storage scrolls since they were expensive, but Tekku didn't have such a problem as he created them himself and even made a profit with them.

"Well, too bad. I won't be able to search for a location for a secret lab yet. And there's no way I will risk doing my research during the mission," he sighed as he headed toward the next shop to stock up on sealing supplies, on which he still relied as he hadn't figured out the Chakra Printing Method yet. He was quite proficient in the Chakra Carving Method, but it wasn't useful for precise seals. Only the simpler ones could be created with it.

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