> “I used to advertise my loyalty and I don't believe there is a single person I loved that I didn't eventually betray.”

>

> ― Albert Camus,"The Fall"

The morning came gently as the sun embraced a new day. Gone were the worries of yesterday, wrapped up in the passing of time as the world turned.

*Yawn

"Eeep!"

Noramori's body cracked and popped as she slowly opened her eyes to greet the new day. Adorable as always, she resembled a kitten as she stretched her arms above her head. Her futon was comforting, warm, and inviting. Birdsong spread from the world around her as a lullaby for a stressful life. She didn't want to wake up. She didn't want to face the realities of her father's cryptic words before leaving the hospital. She just wanted to go back to sleep.

She snuggled into her comforter. It was so soft, like a curtain of clouds. Her bed was safe, and it welcomed her with open arms. The only thing she knew was that the only true savior in this world was whoever crafted such a delicacy.

She hadn't really been able to rest the past few days. Sure, she'd spent a lot of time unconscious, but it was just that she'd spent a lot of time unconscious. Her brain had forcibly turned itself off in response to all of the events that had been lining up like stress-filled dominoes. A dull, dreamless requirement to her rising exhaustion. She just wanted to close her eyes and float back to a world of happiness and disassociation. At least in her dreams, things were better.

A soft thumping came from the hallway outside her door.

Noramori tucked deeper into her covers.

"No, ignore the scary sounds, and they will go away!" Noramori's thoughts were sleepy and full of denial.

She heard the sound of her door sliding open, and she froze.

"If I stay very still, whoever it is won't notice me."

"Moriko?" Sasuke's voice called out.

"Nope, I'm not going to acknowledge him." Noramori was the picture of stillness.

"It's time to get up. You've been asleep for half the day. I'm borrrrrrred!" The little whiner wouldn't relent.

'Half the day? It's barely even morning. Right?' Noramori was confused. No, no, he must be lying to try and manipulate me. Stupid, annoying brother.'

She heard Sasuke approaching.

"Get up, or I'm going to make you get up!" Sasuke said.

"Go away!" Noramori grumbled to Sasuke.

Noramori felt Sasuke grip the edge of her blanket. She peaked her eyes out from under it like a gremlin trying to be sneaky.

"Don't" Her voice was a low, menacing growl.

Sasuke gave a mischievous grin and ripped the covers away from her.

Before he could revel in his genius plan, Noramori rose with the movement of the blanket under the cover of its silky goodness. She popped into his defensive circle and tackled him to the ground.

"I'm going to kill you!" Noramori was furious in a way only siblings could understand.

Sasuke could only struggle as he lay at the mercy of the little monster that was his sister.

They locked eyes. Sasuke was pinned to the floor underneath her.

Sasuke looked confused.

Noramori looked like the devil.

His eyes widened as she began to let a trail of spit out of her mouth. A long, wet noodle of revenge was dangling closer and closer toward his face.

"NO Moriko! Noramori! Get off me! Help. Help! I'm being attacked!"

Noramori's eyes shone with vindication, and her revenge would be swift and terrible.

♦♦♦

Sasuke looked like a wet dog as he continued to wipe his face with a cloth. The family was kneeling on cushions around a low table.

"Serves you right." "You cannot rush perfection," Noramori smirked at her annoying little brother.

"Shut up, you!" He was not amused.

Their mother looked on as she attempted to hide a small smile. She should probably jump in and stop this, but honestly, she couldn't bring herself to interrupt the sibling rivalry. They were just so adorable.

"You know, if you were as strong as me, you could have stopped me. Alas, I am too good. You never stood a chance against your older sister," Noramori's haughty tone rattled Sasuke.

"I was born before you!"

"Unconsequential, you cannot hold a candle to my greatness." She straightened her back and put on her best royal expression: "I am a queen, and you are nearly a peasant that shares my domicile. You will never be of my caliber."

"Why you?" "I'll get you for that," Sasuke attempted to launch himself across the table.

A strong hand reached out and grabbed him.

"Stop, this is neither the time nor the place for this," Fugaku was not amused.

"Fine," Sasuke huffed.

"Loser," Noramori fired shots at her brother.

"Short," Sasuke pulled out the Trump card.

Noramori was furious and surreptitiously tried to inch her way around the table toward the little shit.

"Enough!" Fugakgu put his foot down. He had way too many thoughts going through his head to deal with these two's bickering.

"Yes, papa." They said it in unison, all the while stealing glares at each other.

Fugaku let out a long sigh.

"Sasuke, today I want you to continue to practice your jutsu. You need to catch up with your sister. She has a distinct advantage over you now that she has unlocked her dojutsu," Fugaku's tone was final.

Sasuke's shoulders lumped at his father's statement.

"Yes, papa." Sasuke replied with a forlorn tone.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Good. Noramori, it is time that we had our talk. Once we finish eating, meet me in my office. We need to have a long talk about the future of the clan and your place in it," Fugaku fixed his daughter with a sharp-eyed glare. He would not accept no for an answer.

Noramori shivered; she did not like the feeling she was getting from him. Her dojutsu wasn't active, so she was only getting hints of what he intended to do, but the little bit that she was feeling gave her pause.

"Yes, papa," She was resigned to her fate, even if he was scaring her a little.

"Good, I will go there now. Meet me when you have finished up." Fugaku promptly excused himself from the table and left the room.

Moments later, Sasuke and Noramori finished up and headed toward their various assignments. They were both confused. Father was often authoritative, but he had never been so commanding about what they should do with their daily training.

Unseen to them was their mother's worried look as she cleaned up the table. She knew that her husband was planning something awful. She knew that he had switched to his role as a clan head. She was worried about what this would mean for her children. He had already done so much for Itachi in his capacity as a military commander, and she was scared of what this change in attitude could mean for the twins.

♦♦♦

Fugaku's arms were folded as he looked across his desk at his child. She was weak, but there was a lot of potential stored within her. His thoughts were at odds with each other.

On one hand, he knew there wasn't a possibility of getting her to a level that would ensure her survival in the coming operation. On the other hand, he knew that her abilities would be instrumental in gathering intel, identifying targets, and confirming how much the enemy knew. While it wasn't unheard of for children to be used in this manner, it had been many years since the last major war, and a lot of the current shinobi hierarchy had grown lax. They wouldn't see her coming, or at least he hoped that would be the case.

"Why do you believe that I called you here?" Fugaku addressed Noramori.

Noramori furrowed her brow. She wasn't wearing a look of confusion; she was wearing a look of concern.

"I-I don't know Papa," Noramori stuttered.

'This doesn't feel right; he's scaring me, ' Noramori thought to herself.

"Go ahead and use your dojutusu and tell me what my objective might be." Fugaku patiently replied.

Noramori gulped down a blockage in her suddenly tightening throat.

"Y-yes, Papa," she huffed out a breath and closed her eyes.

She directed chakra to her eyes but paused before opening them. She was afraid of what she might find and of what she might confirm.

"Open your eyes," Fugaku whispered.

"I—I can't," Noramori was trembling now.

"Why, why does it have to be this way?" Noramori's thoughts were screaming at her.

"I said, OPEN YOUR EYES!" Fugaku shouted at her like a pissed-off commander, not like the father she had come to know and love.

Noramori jumped. She was absolutely terrified now. She wasn't scared of how he was acting, but she was nervous about how she felt about it. She didn't want her picture-perfect life to fall apart into so many pieces that she wouldn't be able to put it back together again.

She slowly opened her eyes, and what she saw chilled her to the bone.

Fugaku's aura was steady and resolute, with a feeling that he had accepted a great evil.

"You have decided something, Father," she danced around the issue, "something about me?"

"That is half right," Fugaku knew his daughter was stalling, "I have decided something about the clan and by proxy you."

Noramori saw flashes of what he meant. It felt like he had compartmentalized her into a part of the clan, like a chess piece on a board. So that he could ignore the massive guilt he was feeling because of this pending decision.

"It feels like you are only telling yourself that in order to ignore the pain of a terrible decision, " Noramori tried to get closer to the issue and prodded her one hope, "If you feel so much guilt, why would you make a decision that part of you feels is evil? A decision about me, your only daughter?"

Noramori's attempt to make him succumb to his guilt showed in his aura. For just a moment, the wall partitioning between the Fugaku that was a father and the Fugaku that was the clan head began to fall. It looked like he hadn't fully decided on whatever terrible decision he had made regarding her.

Her heart soared, with hope attempting to spread its wings and take flight. It was short-lived; Fugaku's next words and the feeling of his aura as he said them shattered any image she had of her father.

'Fuck this power; I would rather not know the motivations of people. I'm sure whatever he plans to do will hurt me enough without knowing exactly what his motivations and emotions are, ' Noramori cursed whatever god gave her this damnable power.

"You have come into a power that would be very helpful in our clan's future plans. A power that would help us rise out of the era of weakness and disrespect that the rest of the village has attempted to push us into. I intend to harness that power. I intend to sharpen your blade and make you a tool to put against our enemies' throats. Now, this will happen with or without you, but without you, the chances of our defeat skyrocket. Good intelligence wins wars, and you appear to be a diamond in the rough as far as intelligence-gathering ninjas go. Even with the meager training and skill that you have acquired, your base operating level can serve as a great boon in our coming plans." Fugaku said with a cold and calculating tone.

Fugaku's aura had hardened, and the walls that were being slowly breached by his guilt slammed down with a finite tone. Noramori could almost physically feel as if he had become the clan head and not a piece of her papa was present anymore.

"You want to use me as a tool? You need to do... something. Something terrible happened to me. In order to win a war? What war?" Noramori was desperately trying not to slip into her past life's customary unfeeling state.

"That is correct; I intend to train you up in the most grueling manner possible. What I am about to tell you must stay in this room. This is a secret of the highest order. You may only speak of this to myself and myself alone." Fugaku's gaze was unwavering and promised retribution if she strayed from this command.

Noramori shivered at her father's gaze and hesitantly nodded.

"I need to hear you say that you understand." His eyes bore into her own.

"Yes, Papa, I will not speak a word of this." Noramori shook her head in disbelief at this unseen side of her father's.

"Good. In approximately a month's time, I will command a host of our highest-value shinobi to simultaneously attack several targets within the village. I intend to gut the power structure, and in the vacuum, our clan will rise to become the center of power in Konoha. For too long, we have been tread upon by our so-called brothers and sisters in arms. Even after we did so much for them, they still treat us with distrust and limit our growth. If we do not make a move, we will be powerless before our enemies in but a few years' time," he said.

"I don't understand how that is my problem. I mean no harm to the village. I love it here. I have no loyalty to the clan; they have been kind, but my only loyalty lies with family and friends." Gone was all pretense of uncertainty in Noramori's voice. She knew he wanted an oath that she would assist the clan, but she couldn't care less about the clan. Sure, she wanted to be considered a full member of the Uchiha, but that was due to the fact that it would make Papa proud. A father that was slowly falling apart into the image of all the men she had ever let herself get close to in the past.

"We will address that later; the clan is what matters above all else. How else do you plan to ensure the survival of our family? The clan is the shield and sword that ensure that everyone within it is safe from outside dangers." Fugaku sounded like he was lecturing a particularly petulant child.

'I suppose to him I am a child that doesn't understand the ways of the world. He's not far off; I don't understand. I don't get why he is so resolute on this topic,' Noramori's thoughts were narrowing on her life up to this point.

She couldn't reconcile the happy image of her stern and encouraging father with the military commander that sat before her.

"I do not agree. The village will--" Noramori spoke, but was quickly cut off by her father.

"The village is a threat to us," Fugaku's tone was final, "the village is a threat to our family. You are too young to know this, but there are a plethora of events that led us to the current state that we are in. The power structure and command hierarchy of the village are reasons why we are in danger. Do not speak of things you do not understand.

Noramori's eyes went cold. Her father's aura had leaked out a bit of killing intent with this statement. Every word and action he had taken since the start of this meeting had slowly worked to tear apart his image in her head.

'He truly believes what he says. Maybe it is true?' Noramori was troubled by what her father said.

"What would you have me do, Father?" Noramori spoke in a monotone voice.

A little bit of the guilt her father had separated from himself reared its ugly head, but he powered through.

"It is simple; I have devised a series of exercises to train your mind, body, and soul. We will focus on your chakra control, which will help you in a wide variety of different fields. These exercises will push you to your limit and cause you great pain. It is all in service of the clan. These training methods will ensure that you can help us keep the family alive in the coming war." Fugaku used her family against her; loyalty to the clan would come later. For now, he would use the card he knew she couldn't help but draw: "I would prefer that you agree, but if you do not, then I will be forced to confine you to your training room. We cannot afford to let our enemies move upon the clan without preparing you first."

Noramori spent several minutes staring into her father's eyes. He didn't move a muscle and simply stared back, his aura now unwavering in his decision.

"Okay, Father, I will do what you ask," Noramori finally spoke.

'How bad could this training really be?'

Fugaku gave a curt nod and rose from his chair.

"Meet me in this office tonight. We will begin in earnest. You are dismissed."

"Yes, Father."

Just as she was about to leave the room, her father spoke from behind her.

Oh, and Noramori, keep this training between us; we cannot let anyone know that you are being trained as a weapon. Our enemies will suffer greatly by not knowing our full capabilities."

Noramori passed through the doorway.

"Yes, Sir." Her voice was clipped and direct.

'I am not looking forward to this,' Noramori's thoughts were grim as she finally exited the room. '