A sense of duty is a funny sort of thing. Men die because it is their duty to do so. Otrhers cower in the face of what they know they must do. To a nin, duty is understood as something more important than life. He understood this. He understood the cold hard reality that sometimes, one must do a great evil to do a greater good...to sacrifice some to save others. He understood that following orders didn't always mean doing the right thing. He understood this at the age of 13. He felt that cold reality of emotionless service cleave the remainder of the humanity from his soul as his katana clove the souls from his clansmen. His childhood died with the broken bodies of his family, their blood, the same blood that coursed through his own heart, spattering his Anbu uniform. He watched with seemingly stoical eyes as every single member of his family fell like cherry blossoms...noble...beautiful...fleeting. Only his brother was spared. And that night, Itachi died too.
He left the village that night, turning his back on everything he had and everything he was. He knew that because he did what he was told, he would be hunted. He would be branded. He would be despised and no doubt executed on sight. It was afterall the duty of the village to do so. It was orders. The Akatsuki was no different. He had his orders, and as always, Itachi followed them in the same manner: emotionless, stoic, dedicated only to the sense of knowing that he had accomplished what he was ordered to do. This is a sense of duty. He had nothing else, afterall. No home, no friends, no allies. He had his duty, and that was enough to satisfy the human urge for something to fill the dark void of living. "Hn." Became his answer to all the questions that life posed. Why bother ponder such things as love and philosophy when they seldom matter in a cold unforgiving world? The only human emotion Itachi could remember was hate. He knew it because he felt it. He felt it towards himself. Perhaps because he knew inside that there was an unfinished duty, a reckoning left to fulfill.
It was because of this that Itachi did not flinch when his brother, flesh of his flesh, struck a mortal blow. It was only fair. It was the duty of so many to avenge the Uchiha clan. Revenge for his following orders. That's the way of it sometimes. Maybe now that everything was balanced, and his final duty was accomplished, the duty he owed to himself, and began the night he left Sasuke alive, he could finally be at peace.
