Spiritist | Itachi Uchiha

Chapther 4: The Travel Arc

Cold sweat began to slide down her back, causing an intense chill that shook her entire body, as she looked down from the crows to the Forest.

Kaede was not able to see or detect the chakra yet, as her brother did, but she could see the pressure in the density of the Forest that rose before them, as if the natural expanse had become too small for its own energy. Her father's anger probably went hand in hand with that catastrophe, and she knew it for sure because it was not the first time she had gone through that situation.

She was wrong, she wasn't brave enough to deal with the consequences of it, she was completely sure that she couldn't bear the punishment that the Tomioka leader would have for her.

"I'm sorry," Kaede began to back away, shaking her head with tears in her eyes as her brother looked at her. "I'm sorry, Hideaki. I accidentally crossed paths with him and I warned the Forest of his intrusion but I didn't know that he would dare to come back... I didn't want to but I don't want to be responsible for his death, Hideaki. I don't want anyone to die because of me even if it's him, no! I don't want to start getting blood on my hands and end up like mom...!"

The older Tomioka strode towards her and interrupted her by hugging her tightly.

"It's forbidden to talk about mom," he reminded her in a low voice.

"It is also forbidden to help the Uchiha and I have done it indirectly." Little Kaede hiccupped in fear.

"You haven't helped anyone, you've just prevented a life from being lost." Hideaki let out a heavy sigh and rested his chin on his sister's skull. "Sometimes it seems like you are the only Tomioka left with a completely pure heart."

Hideaki waited for Kaede to comment on what he had just said, but she was so lost in thought that she couldn't get to the bottom of his words.

"Is dad very angry?" She asked.

"I don't know, but we have no choice but to find out." The older teenager stepped aside, and they both resumed their path to the Tomioka temple.

When they reached the entrance door and entered inside, the clan leader was not long in coming.

He appeared crossed arms in the darkness of the living room, taking a seat on the tatami at the back. Kaede and Hideaki sat across from him on his heels, and a tense silence reigned. Kazuhiko didn't take his eyes off Kaede, nor did Hideaki take his eyes off his father.

"Do you know why the Forest kills ninjas, Kaede?" The man asked.

"For justice to his victims?" The girl murmured without being entirely sure. Her breathing synchronized as she saw Kazuhiko maintaining a calm posture and tone.

"He does it to save his future victims," the adult corrected her. "A life in exchange for hundreds, or thousands. That is the only peace we can bring to the shinobi world, and to follow it we have to accept murder as another part of our doctrine."

"It is our price to pay for belonging to that world with our Kekkei Genkai," Hideaki added in a low voice.

"Exact. If someone had killed Minato Namikaze," Kazuhiko continued, "more than a thousand soldiers from the Country of the Rock would still be alive now. If someone had killed Itachi Uchiha, now the rest of his clan would still be alive too. And by protecting this genocide, you have probably just condemned dozens of innocent people that he will murder in the future. All those souls also fall on your shoulders. You know that, right?"

Kaede looked down at the ground grimly, trembling. The lives of dozens of people. Or the life of that man Itachi murdered when she met him for the first time. Someone else could become that humble peasant in the next forest that Uchiha stepped into.