The Goddess of Hunter

It went straight through him… Kamui? so an Uchiha, Kurama thought, still in control of the body as Naruko was still recovering from the shock. There was a chance that she could win if it was just a random assassin, but she knew that this was the masked man that had fought with Minato on equal grounds, there was no way for her to win normally, so instead she gambled on his pride and caught him by utilising the weight shifting of the sword to raise its overall mass to its limits, not daring to use any chakra as it would alert the self-proclaimed Uchiha Madara.

Unfortunately, the man had dodged the moment the sword cleaved through the arm, causing her to miss the killing blow, leading to her situation now, most tricks used and a superior opponent in front. The only way to hit him when he could utilize Kamui was to be either faster than him or catch him off-guard, which was now highly unlikely as he would be on guard due to the loss of an arm.

She panicked as the man seemed to lose all the playfulness that was present earlier as he lunged at breakneck speed. Bringing her sword up to meet the attack hurriedly, she blinked as the attack never came. She looked up to find Itachi standing in front of her, blocking the attack meant for her.

"The girl's not an Uchiha, leave her." He said plainly, devoid of emotion.

The masked man stared at Itachi for a moment, before his gaze landed back onto her, analyzing the situation and weighing the pros and the cons. After a few moments, he sighed before nodding slightly.

"If you say so, then let us take our leave." He replied before swiftly vanishing with a Kamui, possibly to get his injury treated more thoroughly. She released the breath that she had unconsciously held. Though she had managed to injure the man, it was simply due to his arrogance, and if the two of them were to fight, she would most definitely lose as she had no real way to injure the masked man, not mentioning the fact that her combat experience was almost non-existent compared to him.

She collected herself before looking up at Itachi, who was facing away from him, slowly walking towards the forest.

"…You're not a bad person, Itachi, don't ever think you are." She said calmly whilst staring at the back of the man she considered as a brother. The words caused said man to freeze in his spots. He turned his head to stare at her with an irritatingly expressionless face on par with Haruka.

"I am a man who killed his own family for power, how could you say that I am not a bad person?" He asked, staring at her whilst awaiting an answer.

"If that were your own choice, then you most certainly would be, but remember that I am tens of thousands of years old, and I have seen that look in your eyes in many who have gone down in history as traitors, yet in reality are heroes." She said, earning a gasp from Itachi as his eyes widened. From the words, he could tell that he was not speaking to Naruko, but the Kyuubi, Kurama.

"I-I see…" He struggled to say as he gulped.

"Don't worry, I've generally figured out the situation, but I won't say a word to anyone, not even Sasuke." She replied, causing the stoic man to sigh in relief.

"…Look after him, will you?" He pleaded.

"With my life, he is one of the only remaining people Naruko has left, if he decides to embark on the path of revenge, then I will help him as this is the path you have chosen, don't regret it now."

"…I won't… goodbye." He called, but before he could take another step forward—" [AMATERASU]!" A voice from behind called as black flame erupted from Itachi's coat, causing both of their eyes to widen in surprise. She turned her head to see Sasuke glaring furiously at Itachi, blood dripping from both eyes as a strange pattern consisting of three ellipses replaced the usual tomoes of his sharingan.

'Mangekyou' Kurama concluded as she reviewed the events that had occurred recently. The most likely scenario was that either he had seen Itachi execute their parents, or he had stumbled upon their dead bodies. It was distressing to know that someone so young could wield such a power, but nothing in her life nor those involved with her life could ever be normal.

Before Sasuke could damage his eyes further in his own rage, she dashed forward and delivered a swift jab to the back of his neck intended to knock him out for the rest of the night.

After confirming that he was unconscious, she turned around and looked the expressionless Itachi in the eye.

"Take care of yourself." She finally said, breaking the awkward atmosphere between the two.

"…Of course, I leave him to you then." He replied before dashing off into the distance.

Left alone in the middle of the street littered with bodies, she looked back up at the moon that was directly overhead.

"Why is life so cruel to the best?" She muttered to no one in particular. Her trance continued for minutes until she heard footsteps coming from her far left. She once again switched into her huntress clothes and took to the rooftops after laying Sasuke down in a spare bed in one of the now empty houses of the district.

As she approached the source of the noise, she could see an elderly figure moving through the bodies in a hurry. The man stopped at the body of a nearby corpse, and to her disgust he pulled out both eyes and stored it inside a jar before sealing it inside a storage seal.

"Robbing Sharingans? Not on my watch…" She muttered as she silently nocked an arrow and fired. The man reacted swiftly as the sound of piercing air caught his attention, but it was already too late. The arrow went straight through the man's heart before cleanly exiting through his backside, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. He instantly fell to the floor lifeless with his eyes still wide in surprise, not even knowing the cause of his own death.

Kurama could feel a slight headache, most likely from Naruko's reaction to her first kill. Even though technically she didn't kill him personally, she still experienced the action as if she had done the deed herself. Kurama berated herself mentally for a moment, forgetting that her counterpart had not killed a human being before, and now she had just added more weight onto Naruko's already frail mentality from the events in the past hour.

Deciding to apologise later, she approached the corpse, gasping in surprise as she recognised the identity of the corpse—a member of the council, Shimura Danzo if she remembered correctly. Was this the person who had given Itachi the order? It was very likely, as the timing of his appearance suggested that he knew of the massacre at this specific time.

The most likely scenario was that the man had given the order to kill all the Uchihas and flee so that he could harvest the Sharingans for who knows what purpose. It certainly was a lot more plausible than Minato sending the son of one of his closest friends to kill that said friend and a large number of innocents just to take care of a few troublemakers.

She could feel her vision beginning to fade slightly, most likely from exhaustion, both physically and mentally from the events of the day. Deciding not to spend a second longer near the corpses of those she had known for years, she grabbed Sasuke from the house she had left him in earlier and headed for village to both inform them of the situation and call for help. She decided to leave Danzo with his jars of Sharingans next to him along with the storage scroll. Best case scenario, it would expose the man for his foul deeds and everything would be well, at worst there would be some political backlash due to the death of an influential member of the council, but she decided that having the man exposed for his crimes was more important than more paperwork for Minato.

…It really was a long night, wasn't it?