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Toshiko woke up on a dusty floor.

She groaned before opening her eyes to observe the world in the highest resolution she had ever seen. It looked like her Sharingan had fully matured. And it only took three deaths!

Is this going to be her life now? She tried to look at the bright side that at least she had a life. If nature had run its course, she would have died when she was twelve instead of........ Holy shit! She was thirty one.

Her midlife crisis aside, she had to decide about what she was going to do. Leaving Konoha again didn't appeal to her as it did the first time. Maybe replicate her first life of an unremarkable Academy student....

What would that accomplish though? Itachi would still kill her at twelve and she would end up again at the the mask temple in her five year old body. Maybe it was time to think beyond a single lifetime. There was no indication of how many chances she had but her gut told her that it wasn't quite limited.

Maybe she should focus on the skills would be able to come with her after her death, namely ninjutsu, genjutsu and maybe fuinjutsu.

Thankfully, because of Shizune she had reached perfect chakra control and wasn't going aways no matter how much her reserves increased, since she had become very familiar with the intricacies of her chakra and what made it click.

So, to get the training in the branches she desired she needed to have a jonin sensei (as unlike other people she didn't have parents to depend on), because nobody left instructions to perform a jutsu in a library. To get a jonin sensei she had to overcome the prejudice against the Uchiha.

For that she had to....... Okay, she had no idea what to do about that.

Toshiko sighed. She was going nowhere with this. Coming out of her musings, she realised that she had walked deeper into the north forest instead of going towards Konoha, and now she had no idea where to go.

Great.

She decided to continue walking in a random direction, and held out hope that the search party would find her soon, even though she was aware of Uchiha's poor tracking abilities.

Several hours in her walk, she was found by a blank masked ANBU. She let out a sigh of relief (because it was getting dark and she really didn't need to know what kind of chakra mutated beasts roamed in the forest at night), before she was hit on the back of her head and losing consciousness.
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Toshiko woke up on the floor. This time it wasn't dusty and she was in a cell instead of a mask temple. She knew she hadn't died because her head was still throbbing at the place the ANBU had hit her.

Why did the ANBU kidnap her though?

She didn't get a chance to contemplate on that as the door of the cell opened to reveal an old man with bandages wrapped around his head and one eye. Toshiko recognised him to be Shimura Danzo, the councilor grandmother had told her to stay away from.

Considering her circumstances, grandma was right, but it wasn't like Toshiko could do much about it right now.

"You are Uchiha Toshiko?" Danzo questioned.

"Yes." She answered softly. "Why am I here?"

"My child, you have been fortunate to be chosen to serve Konoha with your body, mind and soul...."

Toshiko tuned out the rest of Danzo's recruitment speech, getting the gist that she, without her consent, had been kidnapped to be enlisted in Danzo's personal army.

Danzo handed her over to an ANBU, who was supposed to be her personal trainer. By him, she was explained the ridiculous rules of Root (Danzo's personal army), in an emotionless voice. She was assigned the designated 2341 and was expected to forget all about her life prior to Root. She was not supposed to have any emotion, let alone show them. She was supposed to follow orders unquestionably. The list went on and Toshiko decided that she was getting out of there as soon as the opportunity arrived.
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As it turned out, the opportunity didn't arrive soon.

Toshiko was put in the same room as another kid with orange hair and golden eyes, designated 2310. After much cajoling and persuasion she was able to learn that his name was Yamanaka Fuu and he was taken from his clan compound when he was playing hide and seek with his cousins.

Fuu was shy and reclusive, and was constantly trying to suppress his emotions, even in private, and Toshiko could understand why. The training dished out by Danzo's fake ANBU was brutal.

Toshiko had complained about Tsunade's methods but she had the decency of healing any injury during training. In Root, you were supposed to push through the pain, because missions wouldn't wait for you to feel better. The injuries were healed only towards the end of the training session, and only the ones that could negatively effect your growth as a ninja.

As inhumane as the training was, even she couldn't deny that it was effective. Being thrown into a maze with all your senses bound, was traumatizing, but great for developing chakra sensing abilities. Learning a water jutsu in time being your only defence against painful burns by your trainer's fire jutsu? Worked like a charm. Toshiko was learning at a rate she had never learnt before and learning shinobi arts she never had access to. Everything was great except for the fact that she was essentially in a boot camp for canon fodder, filled with kidnapped children.

She took great care to never reveal her Sharingan to anybody. It was her secret and it protected her. She might not be aware of how much time had passed or what was going on in the world outside of the underground base, but she was resistant to brainwashing because of the crystal clear memories courtesy of her Sharingan. No amount of false memories could compete against them.

Toshiko might be putting on an subversive front, but in her room, her defiance was clear. She cursed Danzo's name, she made plans for when she'd get out of there, she laughed, she cried and most importantly, she remained Uchiha Toshiko, not 2341. Fuu, being her roommate could help but get caught into her rebellious streak. The first time he let out a giggle at one of her particularly creative nickname for Danzo, he looked so alarmed, as if he was caught doing some horrible crime.

But knowing that there was a spark left in him, was enough for Toshiko. Fuu was soon showered with so many passionate speeches, logical arguments and emotions, that he had to concede and join Toshiko's one man rebellion.

Toshiko was waiting for the day she would finally be sent on a mission, so she could finally reveal all of Danzo's secrets to the clan council. It became apparent that she had to stop underestimating her enemies.

Danzo wasn't stupid enough to send ninjas of untested loyalties into the field, especially when he was running an illegal organization. Every ninja graduating in Root was presented with a seal on their tongue making them incapable of betraying Danzo's secrets. And the graduation test was- killing their roommate.

Toshiko watched Fuu sending her an uneasy glance. His face was impassive but even such a small break in composure in public was a big deal for him. By the time it was her turn to face Fuu, Toshiko had made a decision.

Since Fuu wasn't actively trying to kill her, she had to improve and feint, which led her directly in front of his tanto swing, slicing her neck. He quickly pulled back, but it was too ate, her jugular was cut and bleeding freely. Fuu maintained a neutral expression but Toshiko could see the anguish in his eyes.

"It's okay." She tried to say, but it came out a gurgled mess. It seemed her trachea was hit too. Atleast, it would take much longer to die. Drowning in her own blood was really uncomfortable.

The last thing she heard was Danzo congratulating Fuu on succeeding.

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