I suppose a disclaimer should go here somewhere, so here. I don't own Naruto, Shippuden, or the characters officiated and created by Kishimoto. Yay, never having done this before! It's kind of thrilling, in a throwing up butterflies kind of way... So, enjoy! I hope you like the prologue! :)

IPG

Prologue

As Shisui stood before him with his hand extended forward offering the only eye Shisui had left, Itachi couldn't help but wonder how life had come to this. The thought of taking that eye from his best friend made Itachi squirm uncomfortably on his insides, but it seemed as if he and Shisui had run out of time and were now backed into a corner facing a no-win situation. The sound of the waterfall behind them was deafening which made it impossible for Itachi to think, and the mist choked the air right out of his lungs to the point that he wished he could simply lay down and sleep and never have to think again. In all honesty, they were fucked.

Itachi tentatively reached out and took the treasured eye from Shisui, lingering and savoring the touch of best friends and brothers for one final time before Shisui stepped back and over the edge of the cliff. Itachi quickly tried grasping for any part of his friend as he fell, but all that came up with damp air as Itachi watched his best friend fall to his death in the river they had spent so much of their time in together.

"Fuck!" Itachi screamed though it was immediately drowned out by the roaring of the waterfall just ten feet from him. Knowing that he couldn't stay there for much longer, Itachi picked himself up and numbly started running back towards the Uchiha compound through the trees. He needed to figure this out, this could all be solved and everyone could be saved, he just needed time. Of course, he had no time. Shisui committed suicide for him and that only meant that he had less than 24 hours to figure out something lest the entirety of the Uchiha Clan suffer.

As the sun rose the following morning, Itachi was left with an emptiness in his chest that he knew could only be filled by one person, and that person was dead. He quickly dressed himself and walked downstairs. He entered the kitchen where his mother spent all of her hours and where he knew he would find his family waiting for him to eat breakfast with them before they all went about their business for the day.

"About time you woke up Itachi," Mikoto said cheerfully to her eldest son and he stonily sat at his place at the table. Something seemed wrong, but she knew that she would never get it out of him until they were alone, so she felt it was alright for her to wait.

"Good morning, nii-san," said Sasuke as he quickly cleared his academy books from the table just as his mother set his breakfast out in front of him. "Are you going to let me train with you today, aniki?"

Itachi smiled sadly to himself before quickly covering it with his infamous Uchiha mask. "Not today, Sasuke."

"Oh, but you promised! Can you at least walk me to school?" Sasuke pouted to his older brother who had to sigh in defeat.

"Yes, I'll walk you to the Academy," he said as he leaned back against his chair, face still devoid of all emotions.

"Enough chatter," grumbled Fugaku, who quickly said, "Itadakimasu," before taking a bite of his own breakfast. It was echoed by the other Uchiha at the table, and they all seemed to be happily enjoying their meals except Itachi.

Itachi could truly say that even the thought of food made his own stomach churn. How could he possibly enjoy something knowing that Shisui wasn't there to enjoy it with him? He took a few bites here and there to appease his mother, but most of his breakfast time was spent pushing his food around his plate like he had when he was a child and didn't like something that his mother cooked. He quickly excused himself from the table and made his way up the stairs to sit in his room again. He needed to go through all of his notes on last time before he could even attempt to start this nightmare of a day, but he would accomplish his tasks all the same.

He quickly set fire to the notebook in his hands and let it burn into unrecognizable ash as he made his way back down the stairs to escort his brother to school as he promised. He sat on the porch ledge putting his ninja sandals on in a robotic fashion before he felt the presence of a group of young Uchiha men that he had known from his childhood and being in the Academy.

"Hey, where were you last night?" asked one of the men.

Itachi looked at them slowly after he had finished putting on his sandals. Were they accusing him of what he thought they were accusing him of? "It's none of your concern," he said calmly, but his insides were warring with him to draw a weapon and fight them for even speaking to him.

"Really? 'Cause we found a note from Shisui, but he just isn't the kind of person that would go off and kill himself," said another of the men, and Itachi had had enough of this conversation already. He threw a kunai into the wall on his right that cracked the cement there and created a small dust cloud to swirl around him.

"Well, you know what? I was-" Itachi began, but Fugaku interrupted him.

"Itachi," growled the clan leader, and Itachi could do nothing but secretly thank his father for stepping in. He kept the mask firmly on his face as Fugaku stepped past him to speak with the other members of the police force. Itachi glanced into the house and saw Sasuke standing behind the wall. The boy flinched when their eyes met, and Itachi knew why. His Mangekyo Sharingan had activated unintentionally, but it no longer mattered anymore, and the police force would have a tail on him for the rest of the day.

Knowing that he could no longer walk Sasuke to school, he hung his head low before jumping onto the rooftops to make his way into the forest. He could bide his time for a few hours at least.

When the time finally came to meet up with the mysterious masked man with the single Sharingan eye, Itachi was cold and devoid of everything that his heart had been showing off for all of the 16 years he had been alive. This was his only option, his only chance to save the village no matter how painful it seemed, and he was going to go through with it as best he could.

"Shame that so much talent was wasted just like that," said the masked figure as he swirled into existence from thin air. He was referring to Shisui, but Itachi wasn't in the mood to speak. They had a task to complete, and Itachi didn't need to get distracted with thoughts at this point.

"It's time," he said from the rooftop they were perched on and quickly shunshinned away to begin the gruesome task of slaughtering every Uchiha residing in the Uchiha District, all except one.

Itachi began with the most distant of Uchiha in his family tree and worked his way towards the Uchiha mansion. His parents would be waiting for him, that much he knew, but the thought of walking into that house fought against every instinct he had that told him to flee. He dispatched of his aunt and uncle that ran the flower shop next door, and then he realized that there was no turning back from this now.

He found Fugaku and Mikoto in their bedroom on the second floor. Mikoto seemed shocked and saddened when Itachi appeared before them, but his father was nothing but a proud man so utterly disappointed in his son.

"Kneel there on the floor," said Itachi as he tried to avoid looking at their faces. He couldn't stand this. It was so very wrong.

"So this is the path you've chosen?" asked Fugaku as he complied to his son's request. "The village over your family?"

"Yes, Father," he said trying hard not to let his voice break or waiver.

"Itachi, I-" Mikoto began, but Fugaku interrupted her.

"Itachi, We're proud of you and Sasuke," he said letting his head hang for just a moment. "You'll look after your brother, won't you?"

"Yes, Father," Itachi choked as tears began to stream down his face. Fuck, what are you doing? Without hesitating any longer, Itachi cut down his parents in cold blood before moving out into the darkness of the night.

Itachi stood on the roof of his childhood home scanning the destruction of the clan that once had held so much prestige in Konoha. He allowed the tears to flow for a moment before he caught sight of a small spiky-haired figured running in his direction. The Uchiha genius quickly wiped the tears from his face and jumped across the rooftops until he landed on top of one of the telephone poles closest to his little brother. He watched the panic and fear rise within Sasuke and wished with all of his being that this wasn't the way things had to be, but there was nothing that he could do, and Sasuke would soon know just how cruel this world can be.

He quickly jumped away from his perch just as Sasuke turned to look in his direction. The boy quickly ran in the direction of their house, and Itachi wanted nothing more than to stop him in his tracks and pull him away from this horrid dream, but it wouldn't happen and now was his only moment, the truest of tests, to deliver the killing blow and top off the whole charade.

"Mother? Father?" Sasuke said in the smallest of voices that Itachi had ever heard. Why couldn't he just wake up now?

"Sasuke," said Itachi as he slunk from the shadows of the room. Sasuke had jumped at the sound of his name, but had quickly recovered at the familiarity of his brother's voice, but this wasn't his brother.

"Nii-san, w-what have you done?" asked Sasuke as he backed away from Itachi who continued to walk closer to him.

Itachi shunshinned himself so that he was standing between their parents' bodies on the floor and Sasuke. His sudden appearance startled the boy so that he tripped and almost landed in the vast pool of slick, red blood on the floor before running out of the room and down into the street. That's right, little brother. Get away from this.

Itachi quickly followed Sasuke into the street. The streetlights made the feeling of the night even more ominous, and Itachi could see that Sasuke was shaking uncontrollably.

"Itachi, why?" asked Sasuke who looked the way a canary does when it's about to be devoured by a cat. Helpless.

"It's simple, Sasuke. I was not being challenged here any longer. The ultimate challenge, to overcome my attachments, has been successful and now all that's left is you," he purred in the cruelest of ways he could manage. If only he could just touch him…

"What do you mean? But Mother and Fa-"

"Sasuke, I killed them. I killed them all and now I'm leaving you… alive. You are the only one that has the potential to match me in skill, the only one that could pose any real challenge towards me at all. You should muster all of the anger, hate, vengeance, all of it to come and find me one day, to kill me for what I've done, and until that day comes, you will relive this night as many times as you can until you break. Only then will you be strong enough to defeat me, little brother," said Itachi with a sneer. If only he could just hug him…

"But, I-" Sasuke was then startled by the appearance of the Mangekyo Sharingan that caught his attention and then engulfed his world in all the painful memories of this night to be relived eternally in the span of only three days. If only he could just make it all go away.

Itachi watched his brother fall into the mud in the street knowing that he couldn't catch him or even touch him at all. A few tears escaped his eyes but were quickly covered by the rain that began falling around him. He looked up and saw the masked man standing on the rooftops above him and he knew that it was time for them to go. Oh how cruel life can be, thought Itachi as he jumped off after the mysterious man with the Sharingan. He was now going to be labeled as an S-class missing nin, the most dangerous of all those ninja that defect from their home villages, and he would be joining the Akatsuki. How delightful! he thought with all the sarcasm his inner voice could muster. Just great…

As he followed the masked man closely through the forest in the dead of night, he realized just how far he had come. He was halfway there, he could do this! But, no matter how many times he told himself that, his inner mantra turned into something very different. Just wake up. Just wake up. Just wake up. He would certainly be having nightmares after this.

Well, there you have it. My very first prologue! I'm so happy! :')

Until next time (which should be like tomorrow or the day after that) have a good night!

IPG