The Tengu
Itachi sat down, tore off a piece of his shirt, and bandaged the cut on his arm after yet another fight with the samurai who'd been hunting him for the past two months. During those two months, Itachi had wandered through this maze - with no end in sight, fighting with his predator whenever their paths crossed. The samurai hunting him was able to instantly find Itachi whenever the latter used chakra in any form.
"Not sure how much more I can take." Itachi said to himself, looking at the cuts on his body, before resting his head against the wall.
As Itachi closed his eyes, his mind began to drift, and he remembered something from his younger days.
Flashback
Ten year old Itachi turned into crows as he dodged a fireball, re-appearing a few feet away when several kunai came sailing towards him, forcing him to turn into crows again, to dodge. Once Itachi reappeared, a kunai was held against his throat from behind, and Itachi gritted his teeth.
"Again." Mikoto said, as she removed the kunai from Itachi's throat.
Itachi took a deep breath before Mikoto blew a fireball at him again. He continued using his crow form to escape and dodge Mikoto's attacks. As Mikoto was about to sneak up on Itachi again, he turned into crows that swarmed around her, before kicking the kunai from her hand and twisting her arm into a take-down; Mikoto turned into crows and reappeared out of Itachi's grasp.
"What have you learned, Itachi?" Mikoto asked.
"An opponent that constantly attacks can easily be led into defeat." Itachi said.
"Wrong. Now... again!"
End Flashback
"What a time to think of that… most intense training I've had to endure." Itachi murmured.
Itachi stood up and continued his search for the end of the labyrinth, but that's when he started hearing the voices of his clan - each voice blaming him for their deaths.
"No… no it's too early." Itachi growled, as his eyes narrowed. He clamped his hands down hard on his ears to shut out the voices.
"You killed us, Itachi…"
"You failed us, Itachi…"
"If you were a real Uchiha we'd all still be alive…"
"You could've saved us, Itachi…"
"Betrayer of your clan…" these were just a few of the things the voices said, but they were all talking at once, getting louder by the second, and it eventually all became noise.
"Shut up… shut up… shut up!" Itachi screamed out at the top of his lungs, but the voices didn't stop. Instead, the samurai appeared behind him.
The samurai stabbed Itachi in the back, just below his ribs, then kicked him off the blade. As he fell to the ground, the voices stopped and Itachi slowly stood up, beckoning the samurai to attack. The samurai obliged, and Itachi deflected it with a kunai. The two fought fiercely, Itachi getting the advantage after doing a spinning roundhouse, followed by a backhand fist.
'Fully armoured… if I hit the vulnerable spots though, that can keep him off balance.' Itachi thought, as he began raining punches on the samurai, until the samurai attempted to counter but, Itachi deflected the sword into the ground.
Itachi grabbed the samurai's head, then smashed it into the hilt of the sword, before kicking him in the chest and into a wall. Itachi grabbed the blade, but it instantly repelled him with a force that knocked him onto his back. The samurai picked up his sword then looked at Itachi, whose wounds were finally starting to take its toll on him.
"Do it… kill me." Itachi said defiantly, but the samurai just looked at him. "Do it! Kill me, you coward!" Itachi exclaimed, but the samurai turned away and just left him lying there. Itachi let out a deep breath, before painstakingly getting back to his feet and walking on.
The blood loss he was suffering caused Itachi to constantly need the aid of a wall to keep him on his feet, but it eventually just became too much, and Itachi just collapsed, knocking something off the wall. Itachi used what strength he had left to grab whatever fell and stared at it in disbelief. It was a framed picture of his mother, Itachi looked up and saw that the wall was lined with pictures of his clan. Itachi stood back up, holding the picture of his mother close as he walked along the wall. He saw an empty space down the line, and written in blood it said 'You are next, Itachi'. Itachi looked at the space for a second before throwing the picture he held to one side.
"I won't die here and become some picture on a wall." Itachi snarled, and punched the picture next to him, grabbing a piece of glass long enough to be used as a blade, before turning around and slashing at whoever was trying to sneak up on him. Just before he could stab them in the neck, they called out his name.
"Itachi!" They said and Itachi narrowed his eyes, then realized that it was Natsuki and stopped himself.
"Natsuki… how did you find me?" Itachi asked, but before she could answer him, Itachi passed out.
Flashback
Itachi was now 15 years old, battling his father Fugaku in a sword battle on an open field. Their sword fight was so intense that every swing visibly cut through the air, and their speed lifted the earth with them. Fugaku and Itachi clashed once more, with Itachi's blade being knocked out of his hand however, Itachi kicked Fugaku's hand knocking the sword out of his grip and the two engaged in hand-to-hand combat, neither of them actually hitting the other, until Itachi connected with a spinning roundhouse kick, forcing Fugaku back a few steps.
Fugaku picked up his sword, and then used crows to take to the sky with Itachi grabbing his sword and following after the former. The two continued their sword fight in the air, until Itachi stabbed Fugaku in the chest, but the wound was not fatal or severe enough to warrant the end of their sparring session, as Fugaku demonstrated by blowing a fireball point blank at Itachi. Itachi used his sword infused with chakra to cut through the jutsu only to see Fugaku impale him through the chest before driving him the ground below, creating a crater on impact.
"Infusing your blade with chakra was smart." Fugaku said, as Itachi coughed out blood.
"This isn't over." A second Itachi said, standing a few feet away from Fugaku.
Fugaku stared at the new Itachi, then spoke. "You're a clone!" he exclaimed, as the standing Itachi turned into crows while the Itachi beneath him opened its mouth, and a hand reached out and grabbed Fugaku's face. The real Itachi then emerged from the clone's body.
Itachi held Fugaku up off the ground, then stabbed him with a kunai through the chest before throwing him aside.
"H-how?" Fugaku sputtered.
"I turned myself into a crow and hid inside a clone." Itachi said, then threw the kunai behind him. "I was able to study all of your moves."
"I see." Fugaku said, as he walked from behind Itachi wiping blood off his cheek from the kunai thrown moments earlier.
"Are we done?"
"Not yet. You are definitely our greatest protégé to date… I have big plans for you, Itachi."
End Flashback
"You're finally awake." Natsuki said, as Itachi's eyes slowly opened.
"Natsuki." Itachi said groggily, trying to sitting up, but Natsuki quickly stopped him.
"You should lie down and regain your strength - give the blood transfusion time to work."
"What transfusion?"
"Don't worry. I was able to synthesize blood that's a match for you."
"How did you do that?"
"Tsunade taught me... and it's a medical-nin secret."
"But you're not a medic."
"I'm the closest thing to a medic you've got, so shut up."
"How did you find me?" he asked, after a moment.
"Short version is; I tracked you down here, made my way to the centre of the maze, then followed every path until I reached the exit... but that's when I saw a fireball jutsu, and it clicked that you were still in here, so I made my way back and searched the outskirts of the maze until I found you today."
"I see… have you run into any trouble?"
"The samurai that patrols this maze? No, I've managed to avoid him."
"Good, whoever he is, he's strong and smart and relentless."
"Then we'd both better avoid him until you've gotten some strength back."
"Or we could just leave."
"Oh definitely, I may like mazes but I've had enough of this place."
Natsuki helped Itachi onto his feet, then supported him as they walked into the heart of the maze. He'd steered clear of this place because he'd had the suspicion that the closer he got to it, the louder the voices would get. As the two continued moving closer, Itachi thought to himself that with Natsuki here, he might just survive this place after all.
"I can walk on my own now, thank you, Natsuki." Itachi said.
"You sure?" Natsuki asked.
"Yes." Itachi reassured her with a smile.
"Alright, but stay close to me."
"I wi-" Itachi was cut off by the voices starting again, which brought him down to his knees, clutching his ears.
"Itachi!" Natsuki exclaimed.
"The noise… the voices… they won't stop!"
"What noise, Itachi? I can't hear anything." Natsuki said, then Itachi grabbed her arms and looked her in her eyes.
"They're all blaming me, Natsuki… I failed my family."
"Itachi, you didn't fail anybody, the Uchiha were the architects of their own destruction, you tried to save them, Itachi!"
"I didn't try hard enough!"
"You did your best, but Konoha sent you away before you could prevent any of it." Natsuki said, when she saw the samurai's reflection in Itachi's eye. "Okay, Itachi? I really need you to snap out of it, now!" Itachi didnt budge, so Natsuki decided to buy him some time by meeting the samurai head-on in a sword fight.
The fight between Natsuki and the samurai was viciously intense, but Itachi took notice of nothing, as he tried shut out the voices. Meanwhile, Natsuki was holding her own against the samurai, but his constant offense prevented her from mounting her own offense against him until, eventually, she did a front flip kick, connecting with the samurai's head and knocking him off balance long enough for her to kick him again in the chin with a rising high kick, before running to him and wrapping her legs around his head and neck, then throwing him across the floor.
Natsuki walked to the downed samurai, sword drawn, ready to finish him off but, as she reached him, he stabbed her with a hidden blade through the chest as Itachi looked on in horror. When Natsuki's body fell to the floor, Itachi charged forward and kicked the samurai in the chest, knocking him back, then Itachi held Natsuki in his arms.
"It was a lucky shot…" Natsuki said, looking annoyed, then coughed blood.
"Don't talk." Itachi said.
"Itachi… I love you." Natsuki said, before dying.
"I love you…" Itachi repeated this over and over, then just let go of Natsuki as he remembered his final training session.
Flashback
Fugaku and Mikoto both blew two fireballs that combined into a large flame, which hurled towards a fifty year old Itachi.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation." Itachi said, and countered the combined fire jutsu with ease.
Two other Uchiha attacked Itachi from behind, but he fended them off while six more Uchiha appeared above and around him, surrounding him at all angles. They all blew fireballs at Itachi who grabbed the two he was fighting earlier and timed to throw one into the air to get hit by the fireballs as they combined into one, and then using the second one as a stepping stone to escape the from the fireballs coming towards him from all sides.
"I'm done." Itachi suddenly announced, and everyone just stopped.
"What do you mean "you're done"? You have not bested us yet, Itachi." Fugaku said.
"I was able to think of over one hundred ways to defeat you alone, as well as every single one of you." Itachi said.
"So why haven't you?"
"I was hoping for a real challenge, but I see now you cannot give me that any longer."
"If you are so powerful now… then escape."
"Easy enough." Itachi said, then activated his full-powered, perfect S'usanoo which had Tengu-like armour and wings. Itachi flew up into the sky and used his S'usanoo's two broadswords to destroy the moon.
"How did you know?"
"I've been here for forty-six years, and with the environment constantly changing I noticed the moon was the only constant."
"Ah… we really do not have anything left to teach you." Fugaku said.
"Congratulations, Itachi." Mikoto said, and the entire Uchiha clan appeared behind her and Fugaku.
"There is one last thing you must learn to do, but we cannot teach it to you." Fugaku said.
"What is it?"
"A mental safeguard."
"What is that?"
"We've trained you to be immune to almost any genjutsu the Ninja World can use on you, but for those few genjutsu that are too powerful, your safeguard will defend your mind." Mikoto said.
"How will I know I have it?"
"You won't know until you need it."
"That is why you cannot teach me?"
"We can't teach you because your safeguard has no permanent form. It is whatever you need it to be in times of the greatest mental distress."
"I see."
"Before we allow you to leave, Itachi, do you know who we are?" Fugaku asked.
"Not my family."
"Right... We are the Tengu." Mikoto said.
A young Itachi woke up in his bed in the morning, wondering whether what he had endured was just a dream or something else entirely. As a result, he ran out of his house towards the lake nearby, unaware that his father was walking by at the same time.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Itachi performed the seals, took a deep breath, and felt the air turn to fire before expelling it in the form of a fire ball , to his father's awe. "That… was incredible." Itachi said to himself, before realizing that, although he knew these different techniques, his body was still too weak to handle what he knew he could do.
End Flashback
"You were my safeguard." Itachi said, looking at Natsuki's body. He then turned to look at the samurai. "And you're my means of escaping." Itachi outstretched both of his arms and obliterated the labyrinth. "Now come and fight me." Itachi stood as the samurai advanced on him however, Itachi was too fast and kept dodging the sword swings. "I've spent so long holding back my full power, I even forgot what I could do." Itachi said, then caught the sword with one hand. "The Tengu told me before I left their training grounds, that no man would ever be worthy of my full power… and I'm starting to realize that now." The samurai tried to free his sword from Itachi's grip but couldn't. "You should've killed me when you had the chance," Itachi performed the seals with one hand, and a Chidori formed in his left hand. "I don't care if she was just a mental projection… you hurt her, it's only fitting I use her favourite jutsu to escape." Itachi added, then impaled the samurai with the Chidori killing him and causing the entire world to shake and collapse.
As Itachi's senses returned to him while later, he felt someone touching him, more than likely unaware that he was awake. He quickly grabbed whoever was touching him, flipped them over and held a kunai to their throat.
"Stop!" a female voice exclaimed, a voice that Itachi recognized.
"Hana?" Itachi asked, realizing that he was blind again. He activated his Sharingan to see, and sure enough, it was Inuzuka Hana. She hadn't called for him to stop though. Itachi looked up and saw Hana's three dogs growling at him.
"You might want to get off me now, Itachi." Hana said.
"I'm sorry." Itachi said, throwing his kunai off to one side and helping Hana to her feet.
"It's alright... you can turn off your eyes, you know." Hana said, and Itachi deactivated his Sharingan.
"How did you find me?"
"I was picking up medical supplies when these three here started following a scent, so I followed and realized that I recognized it as your scent, but it was mixed with blood as well. We found you lying here, and I was about to start checking when you woke up."
"I see… I don't feel anything."
"That's why I'm here, now take off your shirt. I need take a look at those cuts." Hana said, and Itachi obeyed. As he started taking off his shirt, he felt a sharp pain and Hana saw him flinch and then proceeded to tear his shirt off herself, to avoid him feeling more discomfort. "These are minor cuts," Hana observed then turned Itachi around. "Oh my God." Hana gasped.
"What is it?"
Hana looked on in shock at the Uchiha symbol carved into Itachi's back, the top half was cut a number of times to give it the red colour of the symbol.
Hana brought Itachi back to her house to treat his wounds, after he refused to go to the hospital.
"Itachi, you're an idiot." Hana said, as she tended to his back. "You always do this… push people away and try to do things alone." she scolded, after he explained to her that he escaped the hospital to find an assassin by himself. "At least you weren't far from the village."
"I'm not getting into this with you, Hana." Itachi said.
"Well, when I'm the one who's healing you, I deserve to know and call you out on being selfish."
"I'm doing this because I have to, not because I want to."
"You always have an excuse… there I've disinfected the wound."
"Thank you." Itachi said, he got up while Hana began packing away her equipment.
"Itachi, if your decisions end with you needing a veterinarian to heal you, I think you need to re-evaluate your choices."
"You are far more than just a vet, Hana… you're one of the few people I truly trust."
"If that were true, we'd still be a couple."
"Maybe…" Itachi trailed off, then grabbed Hana's hand. "thank you, Hana, for everything. I truly mean that."
"Just stay safe, Itachi." Hana said, blushing slightly when they both heard a crow and looked at the windowsill. "That's not one of yours, is it?" Hana said, as the two of them looked at the three legged crow on the windowsill before it flew off.
"No." Itachi answered.
"What are the odds that the crow is a natural occurrence?"
"Non-existent."
"Had a feeling you would say that."
"It seems you'll get your wish, Hana - I'm not going alone anymore."
"What changed your mind?"
"That crow."
"What do you mean?"
"Whoever wants to kill me, wants me to find them." Itachi said, and walked towards the windowsill.
"How can you tell?"
"They left a trail." Itachi said, holding a black feather.
"Oh no, I see where you're going with this..."
"Hana… I need you. Otherwise I can't find whoever this is."
"You know you can find them."
"But with your help, I'll find them faster and with less collateral damage." After a few seconds, Hana responded.
"You knew I was going to say yes, anyway." Hana said, and took the crow feather from Itachi and let her dogs catch the scent.
"You just wanted me to beg first."
"Yes… now let's get moving." Hana said, after writing a note for her mother. Itachi wrote a note of his own.
As Itachi and Hana left the village, they encountered Natsuki on her way back from her mission.
"Itachi, what're you doin' here? I thought you were in the hospital." Natsuki said, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Early discharge." Itachi said.
"Oh."
"Natsuki, I have to go on a mission with Hana. I can't get into details, but just take this." Itachi handed Natsuki the note he had written earlier, then left her to join Hana, and the two of them left the village. Natsuki unfolded the note, read it, and then stared at the spot where Itachi and Hana had disappeared, crumpling the note in her fist, its contents softly echoing in her head.
'Trust me.'