Prologue

Uchiha Itachi stood there panting heavily. He looked at all of the targets, all having a kunai or shuriken in each one. Totaling to about 20 targets. He hated himself, hated what he had become: nothing more than a tool for his family to try and keep some control of Konoha. At the age of seven he had his shurigan, at the age of eight, he had graduated the academy, at the age of ten he became a jounin. He joined the ANBU at the age of fourteen and became a captain only two years later. So, here he stands, wishing he could be somewhere else, anywhere else. He would do exactly that, the plans were laid to leave tonight with his best friend, Uchiha Shisui.

He thought back, to the way life used to be for him. The peace that life once held, remembering watching his little brother start to become a man, become a genin. He would watch Saske, Sakura and Naruto as they trained under Kakashi-sensei. He watched as Sakura grew to love his little brother, watched as that love became a very solid friendship. The bond between those three was unbreakable. Itachi would watch Saske and Sakura spar, admiring Sakura's stamina and charkara control as she held her own against someone as strong as Saske, that was saying something. Sometimes, when he could, he would sneak away to watch Naruto and Hinata spar, Naruto being the only one that could withstand the chakara holes being closed without damage being done. The four would practice hours on end. Enjoying each others company, not knowing that they were under close scrutiny. Itachi didn't watch them with the desire to destroy them, but with the interest of learning new techniques. While he could not perform the Gentle Fist like someone with Hinata's skill, he could kill someone. He had practiced on animals, killing them and then reviving them but pumping chakura into the areas on either side of the heart.

Itachi prepared to leave the area he was practicing in, which was in the middle of the woods so as not to be disturbed. His mind was on the meeting tonight with Shisui, they planned to permanently leave Konoha. On the way back to his house, he thought about his family, his mother, always so supportive of the decisions he made; his father who always demanded that he be perfect; and lastly his little brother, the only one of which his was going to miss. He knew that he was going to miss seeing his little brother grow older and beat many of his records. Whether or not their father knew it, Sasuke would exceed everything that Itachi did, he knew this, his brother worked so hard, it would happen.

He reached the house and slipped off his shoes before entering. He walked quietly to the kitchen, "everyone else had already eaten, good" he thought. He quickly grab some food to eat and some extra to take with him on his trip out of Konoha. He then quietly slipped over to his room and packed all of his clothes that did not have the Uchiha symbol on them, which happened to be not much, a few pairs of pants, a couple of shirts, and a jacket. All of this was tightly packed into his bag with the food that he had taken from the kitchen. He quickly grabbed a blanket stuffing it in on top and put what money he had in his pocket. Making an instant decision, he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a short note to his little brother telling him that he was forever leaving.

After making sure that everything had been done, he left the house quietly, putting on his shoes as he walked out of the door. He quickly and quietly ran to the river to meet Shisui. The reason they were best friends was because they had a common hatred for Konoha and what it represented to them. There was one major difference that Itachi was soon to find out. When he reached the river, Shisui was already there waiting on him.

"Hello, Itachi" greed Shisui.

"Hi, ready?"

"Not quite, I have some unfinished business to take care of first."

"What do you mean 'unfinished buisness'?" asked Itachi becoming unsure of the situation.

"I have an idea of how we can repay all of those bastards for how we are treated."

"WHAT! I thought the plan was to just peacefully leave and not return!"

"It was . . . but I changed my mind, I want vengeance, for everything, everything that they did, how they forced you to be someone you aren't, how they forced me to do things that I hated doing, I want payback!"

"What did you have in mind?" asked Itachi wanting to know and hoping that he would be able to stop his best friend before something really bad happened.

"Oh, not much, I just planned on killing them all, making them pay with their lives."

"Shisui, you may be my best friend, and I may hate what they have done, but I WILL NOT LET YOU KILL THEM! I will kill you first." Itachi activated his shuringan and pulled out an kunai, preparing to attack.

Shisui just stood there looking at Itachi like he would never do something like that, but when the kunai came flying straight at his face, he realized how serious Itachi was. Easily avoiding the kunai by shifting his head to the side, Shisui jumped into the trees, preparing to fight and kill Itachi.

Itachi started to chase after Shisui when out of nowhere an explosive tag attached to a kunai exploded right next to him, flinging him back up against a tree causing him to cry out in pain. Itachi slowly got back up and started to try to find Shisui. At that moment, Shisui appeared right in front of him, which caught Itachi by surprise. Before Shisui could make anymore attacks, Itachi rushed towards him. This being an unusual technique for someone like Itachi, Shisui was unsure of what was happening. Quickly backing away, back into the cover of the trees, Shisui sends out a clone. Trying to assess what the Uchiha man was up to. The Uchiha quickly detected the clone and quickly sent a clone to battle it while he looked for the real Shisui. Upon finding the real Shisui about 20 meters away from the battle the clones were having, Itachi slowly and carefully snuck around behind him. With a heavy heart, he prepared for the death of his best friend, knowing how much he hated himself for it. But knowing that if he allowed Shisui to live, the Clan would not. With chakura in both hands, he quickly stabbed Shisui on both sides of his heart, and watch as his best friend fell dead, ten meters to the ground.

With tears in his eyes, he turned his eyes back to normal and slowly carried the body to the middle of the river and let it start to float in his arms. He removed his arms and watched Shisui's body float down the river. Wishing he could have someone offered himself instead of his best friend, Itachi made the preparations to leave Kohona, possibly for good. He was thankful that atleast his friend's death had been swifty and painless. Reguardless of what he had been thinking, he understood, which is why he had to talk to Tsunade-sama quickly.

At the Hokage's office, Itachi took care to relate the whole story, not leaving out any details. Tsuande sent him out of the village until she could figure out how to deal with this situation.

Itachi quickly and quietly ran to the West Gate and left Kohona, not knowing if he would ever be able to return to the public world. Tsuande-sama had promised him that he could come and visit, but must be discreet about it, and never contact anyone but herself. Knowing that she would not lie to him, he left with a heavy heart, wishing for one last chance to see the one he had fallen in love with.