chapter one. itachi's path, the pride of the uchiha clan.
"Hey, Itachi, wanna play Assassin?"
"Sure, how do you play?"
"Well, every one gets assigned a person. Then you have to go around looking for them, and when you find them, you have to kill them-"
A small gulp was heard. "Kill them?"
"Not for real, silly!" A little girl laughed. "You throw a sock at them, and if it hits them, bam! They're dead."
"Oh. Okay." Itachi started taking off his little sandals, grabbing a sock in each hand.
"Then when they die, they have to tell you who their person is, then you have to go after and kill that person. And at the end, only one person is left, and that person is the winner! Okay?"
"Okay!"
"I'm lucky that you want to play with us, Itachi, because my person is you! So you better run!"
Itachi let out a yelp and started running away. This was going to be fun!
The game lasted all afternoon, and at the end there was still no winner. Still, when there parents came to pick them up, the children couldn't very well explain that not every one was dead yet so they needed to keep playing.
"Did you have fun, Itachi?"
Itachi smiled at his father, grabbing the older man's hand as they walked home. "Yeah! No one killed me, and there were only five of us left! And I was about to kill Hikaru, but then we had to go home."
"Good." The elder Uchiha chuckled. "Because starting from tomorrow you'll be a student at the academy. You won't have time for playing anymore."
"Will Hikaru and Akiko and Hana and Seiji-"
"No, your friends aren't ready to become students yet."
"Oh. Okay."
"Itachi..." The older man kneeled down to look at his son. "You get to become a student now because you're very talented. You know that. Even for a Uchiha, you're exceptionally gifted. That's obvious even though you're so young. You should be very privileged to be able to attend the academy at such a young age. So you must try your hardest to become a great ninja."
Itachi nodded. He knew all of this already. He heard it so often from the adults around him.
"Itachi, take your studies seriously, okay?"
"Alright, father. I'll become a great ninja. The greatest of all in the Uchiha clan."
The elder Uchiha nodded and smiled. His Itachi would be the prize of the Uchiha bloodline.
* * * * * *
"Shinobi saying 25. A shinobi must keep emotions on the inside, no matter what the situation. You must make the mission top priority, and you must possess a heart that never shows tears."
"Shinobi saying 29. A shinobi must exist only for the mission. When a mission is undertaken, you are only a tool, and will fulfill it at utmost self expense."
Uchiha Itachi laid his head down on his desk, staring out the window. Shinobi saying 32... 39... 41... Even as his attention was on the courtyard outside, Itachi committed the words to memory as soon as his teacher said them. It was easy for him, the memorization and recollection of meaningless phrases; well, the memorization and recollection of anything really. His mind ran on a level that he, only a seven-year-old boy, could not keep up with. It was a strength of his, something that allowed him to learn jutsus and new fighting tactics at an alarming rate, something that had marked him as the genius in an already genius clan... as the boy who had inherited the Uchiha bloodline the strongest. His gifts were the reason he was already about to graduate from the ninja academy, when most of his classmates were five years his senior. And what he really wanted to do was to play outside, in the courtyard, with the other children his age.
The teacher stopped speaking and dismissed the class, which started to gather their belongings and leave. Some were quick to get out of the room, anxious the do some last minute studying before the exam tomorrow. Some dallied behind to talk with their friends. Itachi grabbed his bag and started walking out of the classroom, not even pausing as he heard some of his peers talking about him.
"Che, that damn Uchiha kid... he thinks he's so great, about to graduate."
"Yeah, I hope he fails."
"Itachi."
Itachi looked up as the teacher called out to him. "Yes, sensei?"
The sensei had heard the comments, had seen the dirty looks the boys shot Itachi. "Is everything all right?"
"Everything is fine."
The sensei smiled down at his best student. "I trust you'll do your best on the exam tomorrow."
"Of course." Itachi didn't wait for a reply, instead he turned and left. There was no doubt that he would do well. He left the building and paused at the courtyard, watching the other children his age playing a game of tag. He had played with them before, just a few years ago, but that seemed like a long time ago.
"Hey, isn't that Uchiha Itachi? Do you think he wants to play with us?"
Itachi turned as soon as the girl noticed him, hurrying home.
* * * * * *
"Okaasan!" Itachi opened the screen door do his house, calling to his mother. "I'm home!"
His little brother Sasuke was crawling around on the floor and looked up at Itachi imploringly. "Foo?"
Itachi gabbed the two-year-old from behind and picked him up, even though the toddler was perfectly capable of walking, and awkwardly carried him to the kitchen where he knew his mother was.
"Welcome home, Itachi. How was class today?"
Itachi set his brother down on a chair and made his way to the refrigerator. "We're out of food that Sasuke can eat."
Itachi went to the cupboard to grab a box of toddler food mix, prepared to make another batch for his brother as his mother cooked dinner. In between stirring the mix he had to keep running back to the chair to make sure Sasuke didn't fall off. Eventually he gave the younger child a pair of chopsticks to keep him amused and still. When he finished he sat down next to Sasuke to feed him.
Itachi's mother sighed as she turned around to look at her eldest son. Every year he became even stronger, and every year he became more and more withdrawn. He barely talked to her and his father any more, preferring instead to immerse himself in his studies. He was always training, or reciting his damned lectures. "Itachi, why don't you ever smile any more? You used to smile so much."
Itachi recounted the words that he had heard almost every week since enrolling in the academy. "A shinobi must keep emotions on the inside."
His mother stood there smiling for a second longer before turning back to the stove. "... yes. I suppose that's true."
Tomorrow, Uchiha Itachi would pass the academy graduation exam as his class's number one ranked ninja.