Before Inochi asked Itachi out to a fight, he was following his usual schedule. He was training hard with Shisui, albeit a bit worried about something.

Shisui and Itachi both charged at one another with their katanas and started having a full blown fight session. Shisui had the upperhand in this fight, not because he was bigger, but also because Itachi was unfocused . Shisui thus won the match in a few minutes without much effort.

- "You won again Shisui san" Itachi said giving a modest smile.

- "You only lost because you are really unfocused. Something is bothering you" Shisui said giving Itachi a hand. "Tell me, you are the one who asked Danzo to give her the mission right?" Shisui straight up went to the point.

- "Who else?" Itachi chuckled. He very much knew that Shisui would have figured it out sooner or later. After all, he was the 'Akane' who was given the missions first.

- "Do you really think one year would be enough?"

- "That's the maximum time Danzo will give us. Maybe even less. Father's plan is still not finished and its the only thing that is keeping Danzo at bay. The moment Danzo gets a whiff of the coup det'at starting, he will order the whole ANBU to kill the Uchihas"

The Uchihas were planning a coup on Konoha. Itachi and Shisui were acting as double agents which was the only reason why the elders and the Hokage were aware of it.

Itachi was worried about the whole village. He and Shisui knew that if the Hokage is killed due to the coup, the other villages might attack which would ultimately start a war. They thus informed the elders so as to nip the conflict at the bud, but no solution could be created. The whole coup planning had been going on for about a year, which was why Itachi was always stressed. However, he got even more worked up when he saw his father taking special interest in Inochi.

To protect Inochi from the clan, he asked his father to let him be the one to lure Inochi into answering his doubts, but Fugaku did not let him do so, instead he just let him be present during the interrogation. It was enough for Itachi to be just present during the interrogation so that he could handle if anything went astray.

Although much did not happen, he left a sigh of relief when Inochi said that she did not possess the Mangekyo sharingan. He knew what would have followed if Inochi had answered positively. Her eyes would have been stolen, and used by the the Uchiha clan leader, his father, to unlock the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. If that had happened, there would have been no way the coup could be stopped.

- "What do you think Itachi, will the elders be able to come up with a plan soon?" Shishui asked as he gulped down the energy drinks post training.

- "Honestly? I don't know. Everything is uncertain. It looks like we have to come up with something. Sending Inochi outside of village at least keeps father from gaining an eternal Mangekyo"

- "Yes. I guess so"

Shisui did not tell Itachi about the plan he himself made up to stop the coup. He planned to put the whole Uchiha clan under his genjutsu, using his Mangekyo sharingan's power; Kotoamatsukami.

Kotoamatsukami was a terrible power specific to Shishui's Mangekyo Sharingan, which could create a subtle but powerful hypnotism, leading to altered experiences and false memories.

However due to the Hokage's unlikeliness to the plan of Shisui putting the curse on himself, of using his genjutsu against his own clan at such a young age, he decided to shelf his plan as a last resort.

Even during the match with Inochi, Itachi was stressed out about the coup which gave Inochi the upper hand. He only focused in the last few minutes as he wanted to give Inochi a fair fight, plus he knew that Inochi would have noticed that he was stressed if she had won easily, just like Shisui.

After the match, Shisui was curious as to why Inochi excused Itachi from him. As Itachi returned, he thus questioned him;

- "What did Inochi chan ask you?"

- "About her mission. I guess I should have found a less controversial one for her"

- "Huh. She is still indecisive I guess. She even asked me about it yesterday"

-" You two are that close?" Itachi was the same as Kakashi.

- "Oh my, are you jealous?" Shisui asked with a grin. However Itachi's disgusted face was enough to tell him that he was dead wrong. "We just met on the street yesterday. I only know her from the chuunin exams and a few ANBU missions together. I hope she accepts the mission, or else it can get pretty messy"

- "I think I did a good job persuading her to take it. If she still doesn't, then I will just have to ask Danzo to force her to take it. There would be one problem less if she is away" Itachi said through his gritted teeth. He knew Inochi would have helped him if she knew about the coup, but he did not want to drag someone into the mess who was never seen as an Uchiha by the clan. Besides the fact that he did not want to create problems for someone who had already went through so much, he also did not want to stain the Uchiha name.

Among all the sharingan bearers, Inochi was the most outcasted. Even Kakashi's eyes were ordered to not to be meddled with by Fugaku, so as to show respect to Obito Uchiha, the original bearer.

However Inochi was completely vulnerable to the Uchiha clan. She was what the Uchiha clan always wanted to avoid, an impure Uchiha. Although her parents were close to the Uchihas, the moment they set their foot out of the village, the clan completely severed their ties with them. While she was growing up, she was under the care of the fourth Hokage, but since he had passed away, a lot of people were after Inochi.

Her mangekyo awakening was because of one of the people who wanted to get their hands on the kekkai genkai. That was by far one of the most traumatic experiences that she had suffered.

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(Flashback)

Inochi was 7 when she awakened her Mangekyo Sharingan. She was living with Kakashi and he was her only guardian at that time. Kakashi did not adopt her, but he still let her live under his roof until she joined the academy.

It was like a normal day. Inochi went to Rin's grave to offer flowers that she handpicked from different shops. Inochi sat down in front of the grave and started ranting whatever came to her mind. As Inochi was showing off her new weapons that Kakashi had gifted her, she heard some rustling in the bushes.

Startled, Inochi stood up with her fight instincts kicking in. Suddenly a Kunai came flying at her, which she managed to dodge. Sensing that the person attacking her is a ninja, she tried to run away. She knew that she was not yet trained enough to take on enemies. However, she got caught as the perpetrator got hold of her hair.

As the hold got tighter, making it impossible for Inochi to run away, she screamed. But the chances of someone hearing her was slim as it was office hours plus the grave was in an isolated place inside the village. Inochi was thus left with the last option, to fight her way out.

She tightened her grip on her kunai and stabbed the perpetrator, but kunai went through them. She kicked simultaneously which seemed to work as the perpetrator was caught off guard and let his grip loose. Inochi who now managed to escape, tried running away but the shinobi suddenly came in front of her. As Inochi looked up to face the shinobi, she saw a sharingan staring at her. Before Inochi could avert her eyes, she was caught in a terrible genjutsu. When she got released, she couldn't feel her body as if it got paralyzed and fell on the ground completely exhausted.

- "Such a sweet little girl. Its amazing to see her not dying after that genjustsu. Won't you agree?" The perpetrator seemed to ask himself while checking if Inochi survived the genjutsu.

- "Was it necessary?" Someone replied. It seemed as if two people were residing in the same body.

- "Oh?~ are you questioning my decision? This is just for the deal. Look, we are one step closer" The person turned Inochi's face and held her eyes open.

- "There's nothing.."

- "I am pretty sure she has it now. Yo, little girl... Wakey wakey. Don't you wanna go and kill somebody?" The man poked Inochi. She was tired but could hear the conversation. She wanted to cry and scream but was too burnt out to do so.

- "Plea-" Inochi tried to say something but her feeble voice was nearly inaudible.

- "Huh, what?" The man crept closer to Inochi

- "Please just- ... kill me"

-"Oh no no no.. We cannot unfortunately kill you. Uh oh, I think you are out of chakra. Wait, let me pull out something" The perpetrator took out a seal and placed it on Inochi's head. She was still tired and was completely paralysed mentally but she gained some physical power.

- "This won't do. We need to hurry up" The other part of the man said.

- "We cannot manually do anything now. We can just take her eyes but it would have been better if we knew what it did" The former part said, getting serious all of a sudden.

- "Let's just take the eyes and complete our part of the offer" The man crouched down to take out Inochi's eyes just when a Kunai landed on his mask. The kunai which would have otherwise impaled his face, suddenly vanished out in thin air.

- "INOCHI!" Inochi could hear Kakashi's scream. "Get away from her you bastard"

- "Shit. Take her quickly!" The perpetrator's one half said to the other. He grabbed Inochi and tried running away just when Kakashi landed a kick onto his face. His lost his grip and let Inochi loose. Inochi, not even comprehending what was happening, ran away from the fight towards the Hokage building.

- "WHO EVEN ARE YOU?" Kakashi growled while trying to fight off the enemy.

- "We don't have time for this. Capture the little girl-" The man chased behind Inochi.

Inochi was fast beyond the man's comprehension. She was running subconsciously as she was still traumatised but nonetheless reached the Hokage's office before getting caught.

- "Inochi?" The third Hokage stood up in confusion.

-"hel- p please"

- "What?" The hokage helped her get off the window sill just when he heard someone approaching them. As he looked out of his window he saw a masked person chasing Inochi, just 10 meters away.

- " Tch...its the Hokage, we need to go back" The perpetrator said to his other halve

- "The little girl is smart. I guess we cannot take her. Let's get out of here" Before they reached the Hokage's office they vanished. The Hokage still very confused saw Kakashi chasing the person.

Kakashi, seeing that Inochi went to the Hokage, felt highly relieved. He too went inside the Hokage's room through the window and asked for Inochi.

- "Inochi?" Inochi was crouching under the Hokage's desk, shivering.

- "Inochi? Come out... Its safe now. Let's go to the hospital" Kakashi pleaded, almost scared as he had no idea what happened with her.

- "Why... is this happening to me?" Inochi almost cried.

- "Inochi..' Kakashi tried to walk over to her when he saw Inochi coming out from under the desk.

- "You killed her. .. YOu killed neesan" Inochi turned to face him, while forming a rasengan on her small palm.

-" Inochi, your Mangekyo-" Kakashi saw her eyes but quickly averted it.

- "YOU KILLED HER!!!" Inochi lunged towards Kakashi from the table.

- "Kakashi!" The Hokage jumped in front of Kakashi and faced Inochi. As he looked into Inochi's eyes, he got paralysed. He saw his feet getting turned into ashes and just when it reached his upper body, he burst with a loud blast. Kakashi got thrown away into the rubble , rendering him unconscious. Inochi, who was also affected by the blast, was now at the last bit of her chakra.

With debris all over her, she at last started crying.

-"Rin neesan, what am I doing..." Inochi whimpered in exhaustion and guilt. As she closed her eyes hoping that Kakashi managed to escape, she caught a glimpse of someone's silhoutte crouching beside her.

to be continued

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The flashback itself will be continued in the next chapter.