Konoha's Weasel Prince

Summary: Itachi never got to use his Susanoo in his fight with Sasuke. As soon as the Kirin hit, he was sent back through time to the founder's era and it was up to him to ensure a safer and surer future for Konoha and the world at large. KisaIta TobiMada HashiMito others mentioned

It all happened so fast. Too fast even for the fastest eyes in the history of the Sharingan to follow. One moment, Itachi found himself in an intense fight for his life against his precious little brother, slowly dying from the disease that has been plugging him for two years now, and the next, with the over-sensitizing power of the Kirin coming down mercilessly on him, he was somewhere else. He felt not pain that such an attack should bring, but a sense of being almost over-energized, to the point that that hurt. His eyes stung in a startling way, seeing as this was a sensation he felt only when he was using Tsukuyomi. The world blurred around him, both from whatever was happening - he felt so displaced in time, space and reality and he didn't even bother to find himself again, too exhausted to even try anymore even if he wanted to, too weak from his illness and the injuries he allowed Sasuke to cause to make their fight more realistic - and from him slowly losing himself, the disease finally coming to take him.

Or perhaps it was the Kirin's effects? Itachi wouldn't know. Everything was fading away. But he tried to fight it, to stay conscious, alive, if only for a few moments longer. An attack like that will surely weaken Sasuke, which will be both good and bad. Good, because Itachi wouldn't have any problems approaching him and implementing the last few steps in his plan to keep both his brother and the village he loved so much safe before he died. Bad, because it will give Orochimaru, the freaky, creepy snake bastard that he was, a chance to try and take over Sasuke's body.

Itachi can't die until he ensures that doesn't happen. He can't die until he's certain Sasuke will remain safe after his death. If not, then everything he's ever done will be for nothing. His life, his death, his crimes, his suffering ... All for naught. Itachi won't let it all go to waste. He's Uchiha Itachi. If he must, he will make the Shinigami tremble in fear before him, he will defy the laws of life and death, will challenge the gods and whoever else he must, but he will not let all he's done be wasted.

But ... It was just no use. Whatever seems to be reacting to his Tsukuyomi must be messing with the rest of his Sharingan abilities as well, as he couldn't activate his trump card. It was the first time ever since he had first managed to manifest it at fifteen that Itachi could not call it out. Even on the worst of his days, when his lungs couldn't seem to draw air properly and his heart hurt with every pump of his blood, when not even the strongest pain medication could dull the throbbing in his near blind eyes, his ultimate defense always sprang around him. In fact, if he didn't know better, he would go as far as to say that on those days it was even easier to manifest it, as though his own chakra was fighting to protect him, to prolong his life. For it not to respond now, when he might even need it the most ...

Itachi hacked up blood, a hand coming to grip onto his shirt right over his heart and pushing onto his chest, as though that gesture will ease up the pain. The crackling of energy around him didn't even register anymore. Neither did the pain. He barely heard Kisame's voice - and only because the two partners have specifically tuned in on each other almost from the first week of their partnership for survival purposes, so much so that they could make out each other's voice over a thousand others even if they were only whispering. He didn't hear his brother's victorious cackling. He didn't hear time and space ripping open right in front of him.

But his eyes saw. Even blind as he was, Itachi's eyes were still very much the sharpest eyes recorded in history of the Sharingan. More than once had his gaze been called all seeing and unnerving in its intensity, often giving people the impression that he could burn them with a stare or even see into the very fabric of the cosmos. The burning thing, they were quite right about and Amaterasu was more than merciless. It would seem that the second rumor about his eyes was about to become a reality as he was sucked in by the newly appeared rift.

The 'space' around him was nothing but a blur of colors impossible for him to even discern. Itachi was pretty sure he was currently seeing even the colors normal human beings would never be able to register without the help of certain instruments, yet here he was. Maybe he was mistaken about the rift and he was simply dying, his soul traveling between the realm of the living and the domain of the dead? He had never had a chance to ask someone what death was like so he really couldn't judge. There was a sort of almost rushing wind whipping his hair around and forcefully drying his blood over his wounds. Yet the 'wind' didn't sting his eyes despite Itachi constantly facing the direction it was supposedly coming from.

There was no noise in this 'space', no smells, no lights, yet Itachi still saw perfectly. His eyes still stung the familiar hurting of the Tsukuyomi's strain but he had never been able to see like this before. The 'space' was like a tunnel of impossibly fast moving images and Itachi just barely caught any of the images as he passed by. Had he not trained his eyes to catch all sorts of movement, no matter how slight or fast, he would have seen nothing. But his perception had always been on a whole different level than anyone else's and that now allowed him to see. The elder Uchiha brother watched in fascination and wonder and a healthy dose of confusion as the years of his life passed by him ... and then he went further into the past. And further. And further. Even though he liked to believe that this was all some after affect of dying - didn't people usually say that they saw their entire lives flash before their eyes in near death experiences? Who was to say that when you actually died you don't see the entirety of the Earth's life flash before you? - he was starting to feel two things he had maybe felt once or twice before in his entire life.

He felt fear and panic.

Now, seeing as he hadn't exactly lived a normal life - even by shinobi standards - the fact that he was feeling fear said quite a bit about how bad this situation could end up being. Uchiha Itachi didn't get scared. He had seen war before leaving toddlerhood, had witnessed a tragedy better left unmentioned before entering the Academy, had seen a friend die in front of him before hitting double digits, had lost his best friend before becoming a teenager, had killed his entire family just a month later, had fought his first biju/Jinchuuriki a year later, had known he was dying before reaching his second decade of life, had prepared to die at his brother's hand just a year later. In the meantime, he had fought some of the most powerful ninja in the world, had faced creatures that would give most full fledged ninja decades worth of constant nightmares and had went on missions that on a good day would be ranked SS.

And never once had he felt either fear or panic.

There had been a hint of both, upon Sandaime Hokage's death, as he had known Koharu and Homura wouldn't stop Danzo if the old crook suddenly decided to forget about their agreement and just have Sasuke killed. There had been a hint of both when he heard Sasuke had left Konoha with Orochimaru three years ago. There had been a hint of both when he heard Deidara's intentions to fight Sasuke just a couple of days before their own fight.

And there had been a healthy dose of both the instant Shisui had jumped off of that cliff and into the Naka River.

This was the first time he was feeling it and it wasn't related to his brother or his long dead cousin.

Because the sensation in his eyes of the still active Tsukuyomi didn't fade and only started getting stronger. It has changed. It was changing, still. It was almost an alien sensation now, a new feeling and it scared Itachi what the result of that new feeling could be. Because he knew that the Sharingan was a fickle and unpredictable thing, even his own very well disciplined Sharingan. Any changes one might feel in their eyes could reveal a whole new power or an entire new set of powers that could lead to even more suffering. And the way Sasuke's attack seemed to only energize his Tsukuyomi, a jutsu like no other that gave the wielder a power over time, reality, space, matter, mind and even soul?

It was terrifying. No one but Itachi could even begin to understand how dangerous his Tsukuyomi could be if it stopped being a genjutsu and somehow through sheer power and energy could be manifested in the real world. It was beyond their comparison. They had never twisted the fabric of existence like so. Itachi did it every time he used Tsukuyomi.

And he feared that what was happening to him, now, was going to have a far greater impact on the world than was probably healthy. So he tried, one more time, to regain back the control over his powers, to stop this 'traveling' through this 'space', to go back to where he should be, to finish his fight - and his life - how he had always envisioned it since that fateful, terrible night.

But the pull was too strong, a strange force dragging him further and further away from the present and towards the past. He was too weak to struggle and without his consent, his eyes drifted tiredly closed as finally, another crack much like the one he was originally pulled through appeared before him.

And he fell through.

00000

He came to to voices he didn't recognize discussing his condition above him, but he was much too tired and in pain to hear anything they were saying and actually registering it. His vision was but a blur and the Uchiha prodigy would have sighed in relief had he had any breath in his lungs.

It seemed his new company also realized he had this problem, as their discussions suddenly took a dive for frantic and panicking exclamations, several pairs of hands fluttering about his chest, channeling chakra into his body to try and make him start breathing normally again. Itachi tried to open his mouth and tell them not to bother, not to waste energy needlessly, that he was practically already dead anyway, but all that came out of his throat was a hacking cough that made him spit up blood and that robbed him of what little strength he had had to awaken anyway.

He woke several more times to his hideous coughing while they were moving him, surprised that he was alive still, at all. Every time he woke up, though, coughing blood and jerking into a sitting position that left him nauseous and with black spots in his already impaired vision, there was a pair of blessedly cool hands soothing healing chakra into his body. Just that familiar sensation made him so relaxed that he passed right out. It was something Kisame used to do for him ever since the disease was diagnosed as terminal. His chakra and hands were quite a few degrees cooler than Itachi's due to his water affinity and it soothed the Uchiha more times than he can count. He already missed his partner's reassuring presence but he was knocked out before he could truly ponder on it.

Some time later, he awoke on a hospital bed, surrounded by what he easily sensed to be expert medical ninjas, trying to heal him and he, rather irrationally, lashed out at them, he knew. But had he wanted to cure himself, he would have sought help years ago! These people couldn't, shouldn't heal him! He's supposed to die! If he's healed, Sasuke will never be able to defeat him and his brother will fall into their Clan's Curse of Hatred due to the darkness and wish for vengeance in his heart! Itachi couldn't allow that to befall his baby brother! They can't heal him!

He knows he lashed out too strongly against the healing hands, but they would have been far worse off had he been at even the normal levels of strength during his illness. Seconds later, that vaguely familiar presence from during the journey and another one pushed him back down onto the bed. The two new people started healing him immediately and the newest new person's chakra so easily started healing him that it frightened Itachi. One more strong presence joined the other two and the three of them led the operation, the other healers soon returning to their posts, a few more coming in to try and keep him sedated with chakra and jutsu.

But Itachi's chakra control was legendary and he easily rebuffed their efforts until the vaguely familiar one huffed and barked out an order to give him herbal sedatives. The Uchiha made to protest, hating the lethargy that followed, straining to sit up and try to escape, only to gasp when he suddenly felt a texture much like wood wrap around him, pulling him back to the bed and tying him up while never aggravating his injuries. Not a moment later, he felt a needle prick his skin and a liquid enter his veins. It was an awfully fast working sedative, as Itachi soon found his consciousness wavering despite his best attempts to hold on.

"He's a strong one," he heard a melodious, unfamiliar female voice say from the direction of the third leading healer. "He will recover quickly."

"Secure him for now, so he does not aggravated his wounds. We need to cure that illness and quickly!" A warm, soothing voice of a man followed from the strongest of the three. "Prepare a room for him."

"Already ordered it, Anija." The one that had taken care of him during the journey finally spoke up. Neither of the three ever stopped in their work while the other healers paused to gather their strength or to change places with more rested ninja. "I arranged for guards to stand by until we identify who he is."

"That is really not necessarily, brother!" The obviously older brother protested indignantly, a small spike in his chakra making Itachi gasp as it was pushed harder into his body. If the sedative doesn't knock him out, that certainly would in a matter of seconds. Itachi didn't need to be a Hyuuga to know one of his vital chakra points had been hit and he could already feel his consciousness slipping.

"You're far too carefree, Anija! He could be a spy for the Uchiha!"

"He is injured and near dead!"

"It could be an act!"

The sounds of their bickering and the woman's reprimands are what followed Itachi into sweet oblivion.