Chapter 8: Bastard

//Hokage office//

"... Alright, you may leave Bird." Hiruzen said after receiving the report.

Bird nodded and disappeared with a [Body flicker].

Hiruzen then looked at the only person left in the room with him and released a puff of smoke from his mouth.

"You've been to many consecutive missions lately, don't you think you deserve some rest?"

"Thank you for your concern, Hokage-sama. But I am doing fine."

"Has it been 2 years already since you joined the anbu? Next week will be the graduation day of your batch."

Although Hiruzen accepted him in his rank; on paper, Sasuke is still an academy student since he hasn't graduated yet.

After finding out about Sasuke's sharingan, Hiruzen knew that he would need to change the way he approaches teaching the kid.

Unlike byakugan that can be trained, the only way for a sharingan to evolve is through real life battle experience. The element of danger is the key for such eyes to go further beyond the entry level.

But if the world finds out that a kid carrying a powerful dojutsu is wandering around, they will not hesitate to get their hands on him. This was why he didn't let Sasuke go for an early graduation despite already having the skill and talent necessary. And having him on the anbu black ops was the best choice, the kid can take on missions in absolute secrecy.

So while Naruto is doing his own training, which only Hiruzen and Sasuke knows about, they have him create [shadow clones] for himself and Sasuke to attend the academy.

"Anyway, how are your eyes?"

Hearing the last sentence, Sasuke removed the mask off his face and activated his sharingan.

"My eyes are fully mature thanks to the experience I gained in the anbu." Sasuke said as his eyes turned back to its original black color.

4 years have passed since he "accidentally" activated his sharingan during one of their training sessions.

Hiruzen concluded that he probably awakened it during the massacre. That incident made him reconsider Sasuke's true potential. Although many Uchihas were subjected to the same level of emotions, especially during the wars, only few have actually awakened their eyes at such a young age of 7 years old or below.

In that same year, the "investigation" on the Uchiha compound was also completed. Though that is what the people believe, it's really just all about tampering the evidence to point all the blame to Itachi while cleaning the name of the Uchiha clan and Konoha management. It took almost a year for the mess to be taken care of - which still hasn't till this point- because of another problem that arose. The number of bodies found didn't match the record, over 20 bodies were missing.

Hiruzen immediately conducted a surprise investigation on his best friend, Danzo. Of all the people who knew what actually happened; the two elders and a few of his trusted anbu, only Danzo and his root had the capacity to do such a thing.

In the end, Danzo was proven innocent and all of the evidence pointed at Orochimaru. Searching for the guy's whereabout is almost impossible. And so, Hiruzen had no choice but to take a step back and preserve his manpower after a year of fruitless hard work.

With the investigation out of the way, Sasuke was again allowed to enter his clan's compound. Everything that was originally owned by his clan members was then transferred to his name. So he decided to live back at the compound instead of the small apartment Hiruzen provided him.

Except for the comfy bed, huge training ground all by himself and the knowledge accumulated by his family throughout the years about sharingan in the library, Sasuke's real objective for doing so was the Uchiha tablet. According to Itachi, it is hidden in the clan's secret meeting room, located beneath the seventh tatami mat on the far right of the space. It's undoubtedly the most important place of the compound that is only known by the patriarchs.

"Mmm. For how long have you had the 3 tomoes again?"

"2 weeks at most."

"I see." Hiruzen paused and massaged his goatee.

"Then, let's put your eyes to the test. A solo S-rank mission shall do. What do you think?" Hiruzen then placed a document on the table.

Sasuke took the document and read the content.

"The target is the young daimyo of the Land of Frost huh. He looks to be the same age as me."

Hiruzen released a puff of smoke and leaned back on his chair. "So, can you take it?"

This might be a bit overbearing for a 12 years old child, but Hiruzen knows Sasuke's capabilities. Going as far as saying that the kid is on par with his master, 2nd Hokage Tobirama when it comes to creating techniques. A revolutionary talent.

"I should be able to by myself." Sasuke said confidently.

"Just a word of advice, complete the mission as soon as possible."

"Understood." Sasuke bowed and disappeared.

…

((Sasuke PoV))

I arrived at my house to prepare for my first solo mission. Up until now I'm always accompanied by another anbu for additional support but 3rd finally decided for me to go alone. I've been waiting for this moment.

I'm free to do whatever I want as long as I accomplish the mission.

According to the information, the young daimyo would be attending a meeting with the Raikage at Kumo, 3 days from now. As someone would expect from a leader who lacks experience, he is a naive child who gets easily tempted and tricked. His father died a year ago due to an incurable disease, forcing him to take the mantle as the illegitimate son and only relative remaining.

'Looks like Kumo will use this chance to control the child and slowly take over the Land of Frost without alarming other villages. After all, it is an important land supply route that connects to neighboring countries. It is also the main source of chakra metals which I think is what they are really after.'

(map of the ninja world)

My mission is to assassinate the young daimyo once he gets to the Land of Lightning and make it look like he was killed by a Kumo ninja. Although it's pretty stupid to kill a VIP in your own territory and no one will probably believe it, other villages will surely take this opportunity to pin Kumo down. Right now they have the strongest military power amongst the 5 great villages so the other 4 need to keep them in line.

'I feel sorry for the kid. The world is a fucked up place, he can only blame his destiny for it.'

After repacking all the things I need for this mission, I set out.

//6 hours later, Land of Frost//

In my field of view is a vast circular compound. Everything is covered in snow, from ground, trees, to the roof of the houses. In the center is a decent looking white japanese mansion, not too extravagant nor thrifty, just enough to showcase wealth. And in the 4 corners of the mansion are guard towers with 3 ninjas each.

I'm currently hiding on a tree branch 20 meters away while using [camouflage jutsu]. It is an A-rank technique that lets me control the reflection of light by encasing my body with chakra, making me invisible to an unaided eye. In addition to that, I also used [transformation jutsu] to change the shape of the chakra encasing my body into an owl's feathers to erase the sound of my movements. Unless there's a sensor type ninja, I will not be found out.

I have to say, [transformation jutsu] is quite overpowered. You don't even have to use chakra manipulation to shape your chakra, this gives the appearance of most of the ninjutsus today. The only downside is that it cannot change the property of the chakra into nature transformation or change the mass of an object, other than that you can do anything with it.

Then with a series of hand signs I erected a spherical barrier of 5 meters in radius, my body as the center. This technique was taught to me by 3rd, called the [barrier battle arts]. It's an intangible barrier that alerts me of anything inside which is very useful in detecting sensor types as they unconsciously release pulses of chakra around them in a certain way just like a radar. I've actually tried copying it before but it proved to be impossible for me as the pulses of chakra kept scattering everywhere once it hit an object and never came back to me to register the information.

Back to the mission at hand, after checking that there's no sensor in the vicinity, with a swift movement I disappeared from my spot and appeared on the roof of the mansion using [body flicker].

'This will be easier that I thought.'

Although it's an S-rank mission as it involves assassinating a VIP, the difficulty is not that high. What's more, Land of Frost does not even have a ninja village so their security is sorely lacking. When the previous daimyo was still alive this country was actually doing quite well, and since he had connections with some of the daimyo of the 5 major countries, mainly the Fire and the Lightning daimyo, they were heavily protected.

The Land of Fire and Land of Lightning couldn't even lift a finger to them since they know it will spark another war if either of them step out of line. But with a mere child now leading the country, Kumo saw this opportunity, not knowing that Konoha was actually waiting for them.

'3rd might be kind to his people but outside of it, everything is just a tool.'