The next day.
News of the Uchiha massacre swept through Konoha and then the world at a frenzy. There was nothing more explosive than this.
Everyone in the village, young and old, argued and whispered.
Wherever Konome Taketori walked, she heard rumors about the Uchiha.
They said the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, held a memorial for the clan.
In his address he declared that Uchiha Itachi, genius of the Uchiha, had slaughtered his own kin and defected. He was the sole culprit.
He reminded all that Konoha had been founded by the Uchiha and the Senju and that the Uchiha had served with distinction, only to suffer this calamity. He offered regret.
Then he vowed that Itachi's butchery of his family would not be tolerated, naming him an S-class missing ninja of Konoha who must be brought to justice.
In the end, every charge fell on Itachi.
The fact of the clan's attempted rebellion was buried. No one could explain how Itachi could kill the entire clan in such a short time, and no one dared probe the holes.
This was already the best outcome.
The Uchiha's honor as cofounders remained. Konoha had not publicly executed a clan of heroes.
The invincible Uchiha had died by one of their own. Their pride and face were preserved in a final, twisted way.
The once bustling compound now held hundreds of unseeing corpses and a single desolate boy.
Sasuke was hospitalized.
The story was trauma and shock, unable to attend class for now.
The Academy's survival exercise would still proceed.
The rules, however, had changed.
What had been a class picnic became a true field survival test.
With the Uchiha no longer a threat, the village looked as if it had slipped back to normal.
Flutter.
A gray swift skimmed over Konome's head. In the grass, a fat rat dove into its hole, hind legs scrabbling at the dirt.
A narrow chill crossed Konome's Byakugan.
These animals were wrong.
For days she had done nothing but attend class and then shut herself in at home, trying to find the source of that faint sense of being watched.
Nothing, until this morning.
She opened her door and saw several sparrows perched on the wall. A flicker of familiarity rose in her mind.
Thinking back carefully,
she realized that every time she went out, directly opposite her door, a few small animals would appear.
Sometimes swallows.
Sometimes sparrows.
Once, even a black chipmunk hugging a pine cone.
Once or twice would be chance. Every time meant something else.
Someone was using animals to watch her.
She did not know why yet. Maybe it was because she practiced Gentle Fist in the Forest of Death among wild things and drew the wrong attention.
After school, backpack slung over her shoulder, Konome glanced at another sparrow dropping to the eaves and narrowed her eyes.
She pretended not to notice and pushed the door open.
Inside,
her Byakugan traced the bird on the roof. It chirped, then skittered to the window, round eyes peeking through the glass.
Through the pane,
Byakugan and bird eyes met.
Konome finally understood the source of that constant gaze.
A bigger question followed.
There was no chakra at all.
How.
No matter how many sweeps she made, she could not find any special residue in the bird. Aside from odd behavior, it was a normal animal.
A secret art that controlled ordinary animals without chakra.
Incredible.
Konome shook her head.
Ninjutsu in this world came in every shape, but chakra was the root of all of them.
Thanks to the Byakugan's insight and chakra sight, Konome always enjoyed an information edge. She had even formed a habit of relying on it.
You could not blame her.
These eyes were too useful.
Open the Byakugan,
and most problems became obvious.
If something had chakra, she watched it. If it did not, she gave it a glance and ignored it.
If not for the animal surveillance, she would never have noticed how dangerous that habit could be.
She felt oddly grateful.
Better to learn the cost now while there was time to change. If an enemy used a technique the Byakugan could not read in a real fight, a moment's carelessness could exact a heavy price.
Even Kaguya Ōtsutsuki got her eyes crossed by Naruto's reverse harem. How much more so for her.
Knock, knock.
Konome walked to the window.
She watched the sparrow outside flit away and pulled the blue curtain closed.
She did not know the watcher's goal.
It probably was not a secret admirer. It likely was not ANBU or Root either, or the Third and Danzō Shimura would have already summoned her.
An enemy should be eliminated.
A technique with no chakra was troublesome.
The Byakugan could not detect it.
Konome thought and thought, and found no clean answer.
The only path was to lure the snake from its hole. Give the enemy an opening and make them reveal themselves.
At her current strength,
even if she could not win,
the Eight Gates would let her break contact. Against a typical elite jonin she could at least run.
If the watcher was kage level,
she refused to consider it.
There were only a handful of kage class across the world, all famous names. If the watcher had that strength, they would have struck in the Forest of Death already. There was no need to skulk.
Her logic set,
Konome judged the danger manageable and chose to fish.
She fished for four days.
She went out of her way to visit the loneliest corners of the Forest of Death.
After training she used Shikotsumyaku to fake complete exhaustion, even simulated injuries from overtraining that left her seemingly unable to move.
No one bit.
She guessed
either the opponent was very cautious or very weak. Even when she looked spent, they dared not act.
Or this chakra-less surveillance lacked real time transmission. They could not report her condition instantly, so the controller did not know when to strike.
Both could be true.
No strength and no live feed, weaker than she had expected.
Even without seeing them, Konome had already sketched several lines of the enemy's profile.
The fishing plan failed for now.
She had no better option than to match patience with an invisible foe.
Time turned.
Friday arrived.
Konome followed teachers and classmates to the north gate of Konoha's Training Ground Zero.
The three day field survival exercise began.
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