Wammy'sHouseReject: This is a little pet project Osi and I came up with a little while ago. It's EXTREMELY AU and involves Evil!Sarutobi and NotaDick!Orochimaru. Don't like that, don't fucking read it XD
Osi: This is something I came up with after thinking "What if Sarutobi was the bad guy?" as i was shooting off ideas in my brain. I also thought about turning Itachi into a girl, FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES. So here ya go.
WHR: Thank God you didn't...
Osi: Oh come on! *angry mumble* Bakahentai...
WHR: I wasn't the one who wanted to make Itachi a girl...
DISCLAIMER: Neither I nor my partner own Naruto, or any of the characters associated with it. It is the property of Masashi Kishimoto, so please support the official release. Got it? Damn well better. Been doing this for three years XD
~Minato Namikaze~
Minato's not as young as he used to be. He's not the handsome Yellow Flash of the Hidden Leaf. He's not Hokage anymore.
He can't bring himself to look in the mirror of his cramped cell anymore- it brings too many awful feelings to his heart.
Withered hands wrap around his sides, trembling with tears that ran out years ago.
Why is he still alive? Why hasn't a Shinigami taken this poor, tormented soul away? Didn't he deserve to die in peace?
Kushina...
He couldn't believe he'd been so betrayed. They'd taken his wife, his son, his everything.
His weary body is too devastated to fight back to change his fate. He cannot escape this Hell on Earth.
Kushina...
What had he done? Was there some sin in his life that he had yet to atone? He'd done his best to be a good person. He hadn't wronged anyone...not on purpose.
He can't bear it when Naruto comes to visit. He can't stand the disappointment in his son's eyes, seeing him in such a sorry state. He can't stand looking over the injuries the others have inflicted on his innocent son, who had never done anything wrong in his life. Why must he be punished, when his only crime was being born?
Minato feels weak.
Helpless.
Powerless.
Kill me.
~Naruto Uzumaki~
He doesn't understand why everybody hates him. He doesn't understand why he's scorned and shunned and beaten and bruised. He doesn't understand why his father's locked up in a cell, ancient and dying, while other people have fathers that are healthy and young, that can play with them in the front yard, and protect them when bullies hurt them.
Other kids had brothers and sisters and mothers waiting at home for them.
Naruto is four years old, and he doesn't understand. What has he done to deserve to be punished? Did he make someone mad?
But not everyone hates him. There's that one nice boy who lives in the compound on the west side of the village, who wears his black hair in a ponytail. He doesn't say much, but sometimes he'll smile in Naruto's direction. On his birthday this year, the boy gave him a coupon for a free bowl of ramen with a smiley face scribbled on the back.
But the nice boy isn't around much. He became a shinobi, and now he was gone on missions.
Sometimes, too, Naruto hears yelling from inside the nice boy's house, breaking things and the sounds of people hitting each other.
Naruto is so scared, hiding in alleys and nursing half-healed wounds. He's so afraid, and deep down inside him, anger is taking hold in his tender little heart. Kyuubi whispers dark thoughts in his mind, wicked suggestions, promising revenge.
I'll make them pay. Someday I'll hurt them just like they hurt me. Then they'll be sorry.
~Sasuke Uchiha~
Father hit big brother again...
Sasuke is only five, but he's not stupid. Father was yelling, brother kept talking, neither of them listened to the other. So Dad hit brother, like he always does.
Itachi took the blow without flinching, same as always, acted like it didn't happen- but this time, the bruise is right on his cheek, blooming like an ugly blue and purple flower, so he can't hide it like he usually does.
Sasuke knows how things work around here- Dad calls all the shots. Everyone does what Dad says. Mother does, Sasuke does, big brother does. but big brother still fights him, sometimes.
"Why do you do it?" Sasuke asked, one lonely night when Itachi actually came to his room to cry.
"I have to," Was all big brother said.
Mommy watches Daddy yell at Sasuke, call him worthless, hurt his feelings, hit his brother, and she does nothing but make a sad face.
He's three when he realizes his mother cannot save them from their father's anger. When he realizes that big brother isn't invincible. By the time he's four, he realizes just how many things big brother can't control.
Now he's five years old. Big brother is five years older. Big brother is smarter than him, and sadder, too. He's getting ready now to take the Chuunin exams, like father wants him to.
Big brother doesn't smile at all anymore.
There's a bandage around brother's hand where Dad twisted his wrist last night. Sasuke watches him pack shuriken and kunai into his bag with admiration. Even when he's hurt, big brother is tough.
"You're gonna do great, big brother!" Sasuke squealed, grinning and rushing to hug him. Itachi hugs back and ruffles his hair.
"Are you scared, big brother?" Sasuke asked.
Yes. "No."
Sasuke grins.
"Course not. My big brother is the best there is!"
Sasuke sleeps in Itachi's bed that night, and sees him off to the exam center in the morning.
When Itachi returns, a month later, he's a completely different person than he was before.
Big brother has always been quiet. But after he gets back, and tells Dad he's a Chuunin now, he becomes even quieter. He locks himself in his room whenever he's home, instead of playing with Sasuke like he always does. He doesn't go to tea shops with Shisui-san anymore. He says that he's just tired, but Sasuke hears him crying. Itachi never trains with him anymore, either. It's always just 'maybe some other time,' a poke in the forehead, and a smile that's too ancient in sorrow, too ancient in pain.
Sasuke is five years old, and he wonders what he did wrong, to lose his older brother.
~Fugaku Uchiha~
Fugaku stays up late most nights, lost in his thoughts, torn up by conflicting emotions swirling in his heart and in his mind.
He loves Itachi. He loves him so much...his firstborn son, his flesh and blood... but his own temper keeps getting the best of him. Your temper will be the death of you one day, Fugaku.
He gets so frustrated when he and Itachi can't manage to see eye to eye- something that was happening with increasing frequency lately. And now he's pacing the bedroom in the dead of night, practically tearing his hair out in frustration.
Why can't he understand?
He hadn't meant to twist Itachi's wrist again- he knew how long it took for sprains to heal. But Itachi was getting too fast to evade these days. Fugaku isn't as young as he used to be, and though he is far from an old man, the rigors of shinobi life have worn down his body, and he can feel the aching in his bones.
Mikoto is asleep in another room. She said she can't sleep in the same bed as him anymore. She doesn't even look at him these days. He's alienated his wife the same way he's done everyone else.
He leaves the bedroom; the floor is cold under his bare feet. He walks down the hallway, peering into Sasuke's bedroom. He's fast asleep, untroubled as ever. So innocent. Fugaku hates that he can't stay young and pure, untainted forever.
You'll fuck him up, his conscience scolds. You're gonna fuck him up the same way you fucked up Itachi.
He goes into Itachi's room, moving soundlessly, and carefully.
The boy is asleep, the first sound sleep he's had in months. The deep, bruised circles under his eyes are starting to fade. His face is relaxed, angelic in repose.
Fugaku crosses the room and sits down on the edge of the bed.
Itachi's wrist is bound tight in clean white bandages- he probably went and got it fixed up at the ANBU infirmary. Fugaku has a sneaking suspicion that the medics there know the real origins of his son's frequent injuries. He didn't like the way some of them were looking at him these days...
Fugaku puts a hand on Itachi's head.
"Itachi."
The child doesn't stir.
"I'm proud of you. You're an admirable Shinobi. You're an admirable son."
He doesn't deserve all that he has. He was given two perfect sons, a beautiful wife. Now, one son bears early battle scars, and Mikoto cannot stand the sight of him.
He doesn't wonder what he's done wrong. He knows it.
~Itachi Uchiha~
Itachi clenches his hands into fists to try to stop them from shaking. It doesn't work.
This has to be done, he tells himself. I'm the only one who can do it.
He casts one last look at Shisui's suicide note, cast aside on the floor. His best friend, the one who gave him the Mangekyo Sharingan. He's dead now, rotting in a coffin underground.
He jumps out the window and sets off. He'll start at the farthest edges of the compound, and work his way to his parents. Maybe it'll be easier that way.
He goes inside each of the houses, and kills the only family he known, one by one. The adults in the compound had their throats slit, or woke up with a kunai in their chest before choking to death on their own blood.
The children were put under a genjutsu that would keep them asleep and in a happy dream, then Itachi slit their throats. The cuts would have been cleaner, but Itachi's hands were shaking, and tears streamed down his face by the time he finally reached his parents' house. As he walked inside, his sadness turned into cold determination, and his face turned into a stone mask, showing no emotion. He reached his parents room and looked drew his katana.
Mother and father were already awake.
Itachi falters. But he remembers his mission. No matter how much his family mattered to him, he has a duty to fulfill.
"You're a good boy, aren't you? You'll do what we say, to protect the village, right?"
He also remembers every time his father hit him, all the times he yelled, and every time his mother did nothing; his heart turns into ice.
He kills his father first, crying and shaking so hard he can hardly hold his sword straight. He pulls the sword from his father's chest and walks toward his mother, hatred burning in his eyes.
"If you fulfill your mission exactly as you should, then I will let Sasuke live. I will protect him. I give you my word. But you must keep yours."
"No! Get away, you monster!" she screams and throws a kunai at him, but he didn't even flinch, closing the distance between them.
"...Don't do this! Please," She starts crying uncontrollably, as she looks her Reaper in his cold eyes.
"Please don't do this to Sasuke!" He stopped moving, and his grip tightened around his katana. "Don't leave him alone!"
"Don't you ever say his name to me!"" Itachi snarled. "You never even tried to protect us! Don't you dare!" He runs at his mother and plunges the katana through her stomach and out her back. Blood started to spew from her mouth and she began to moan in pain. He ripped the blade out violently and decapitated her in one swift motion. Her insides spilled out onto the floor.
She was dead. It was done.
"You must wipe out your whole clan, all except Sasuke."
Itachi drops his katana, and dips his fingers in his mother's blood. He raises his trembling hand and begins to write a short message on the wall.
His hand falls limply to his side. He stares at his handiwork with blank eyes, then pulls out the last kunai he'll ever use.
"When I say the whole clan, that includes you, of course, Itachi-kun."
"Big brother!"
Itachi whirls around. Sasuke is bawling, quaking, and scared.
"Big brother, everyone's dead!"
Itachi bowed his head.
"...I know, Sasuke."
"I-I don't understand! Who could have done something like this?"
Itachi walked over to Sasuke, kneeling down to his height. He gathers the quivering boy against his chest and holds him tight, crying soundlessly against him.
"...It's alright, Sasuke," he whispers, through his tears. "Don't be afraid. Everything will be alright."
Sasuke clings to Itachi, and for a beautiful, eternal moment, Itachi is allowed to believe his own lie.
"Big brother," Sasuke whimpers. "Who...who did this?"
Itachi releases his precious little brother and straightens up. He smiles feebly. His eyes are wide, too wide- it almost makes him look like a madman.
"Hokage-sama...promised...he would let you live...that he would protect you."
He raises his kunai in the air. Sasuke's eyes go wide.
"Big brother, what are you doing?!"
"Sasuke...I have to go now..." Itachi's voice cracks.
"...Big brother?"
"Farewell...my foolish little brother."
With those words, Itachi thrust the kunai straight into his own chest.
"BIG BROTHER!"
Itachi falls to his knees. The sight of his little brother screaming and crying the last he'll ever see.
"I love you...Sasuke..."
He falls against the cold, blood slicked floor. His dark eyes cloud over as his vision starts to fade.
Sasuke's pitiful screams sound so far away. A hollow ringing fills his ears. Sasuke is shaking him, but he feels disconnected from the sensation.
His body relaxes, and he lets his eyes close. He's numb now, from emotions, from the pain of his wound. His soul slips away, leaving the empty shell of a hopelessly broken young man.
~Kakashi Hatake~
The whole Uchiha compound reeks of death. Blood is on the walls, on the floors, all over the cooling corpses.
He doesn't expect to find a living soul here, so when he sees a little boy unconscious on the floor, very much alive, he can't help but be surprised.
Kakashi recognizes the corpse he's sleeping against- Itachi Uchiha, a captain in the ANBU Black Ops. He was a good kid, quiet, serious, and a superior shinobi. He obeyed all orders without question, and was a respectful and seemingly well balanced young man.
So why'd he suddenly snap and kill his whole clan?
Kakashi motions for the other ANBU to carry away the corpses. He catches sight of the words scrawled on the wall in human blood.
I put down the rabid dog. Now you protect the nursling.
He looked down at Itachi's corpse and slowly picked up the poor child on top of him. His little face had tear stains on it.
"Poor kid must've cried himself to sleep. To be so young, and yet see Hell itself in front of him..."
He glances at Itachi. He had seen Hell too, once. Maybe, just maybe...he was less put together than he always strived to appear.
Maybe there was trouble in the family. Maybe all the killing had gotten to his head, and he just snapped. Or could it be more than that? His investigation would be rough indeed.
"Kakashi! How's the scene going?"
He turned around and shook his head.
"Take Itachi's body in for autopsy," He orders. "I want a full investigation done on this. And try to get an interview with the survivor."
""I never knew you could order the Hokage around, Kakashi."
Kakashi looked at the man in front of him and froze.
"H-Hokage-sama! Apologies!"
He bowed his head to the Leaf's leader and took a good look at him.
He's handsome, and younger looking than he was even last week. It makes Kakashi more than a little suspicious.- seventy years of age gone in a month. Not that he would ever admit he WAS suspicious, of course.
"Let me take the poor nursling off your hands, Kakashi. I'll handle him, you take care of the bastard and his parents."
Kakashi heard pure malice behind Sarutobi's words. It made his blood run cold.
I've put down the rabid dog. You take care of the nursling.
Maybe...there's more to this than meets the eye...