Hey guys,

I hope you're all enjoying your summer vacation. I've only just finished my last final this Monday and I'm so excited to Father's Day. Make sure to take the day to show your dad, or uncle, or grandfather, or father figure even just how much you appreciate their guidance.

Anyways, I was actually planning to include this installment of the My Father series after the actual sequel following the lives of Mayuri and Yukimura after Sasuke's execution. Unfortunately though, there is just one scruple of mine that gets in the way of this: the ending of the original Naruto series. I don't like it when fanfic authors change the plot or characters of a story too much, it takes the point away from writing a fanfiction if you're just going to be having these characters that don't have any similarities to the originals. So that being said, the ending of Naruto is rather important to how the sequel of My Father is going to turn out. So naturally, there will be a lot of waiting. And I can't wait anymore for this short three part special to be released.

So here it is! The next three chapters is really a theory of how life would be if the Uchiha clan never planned a coup d'etat against Konoha which would ultimately help Itachi avoid making the sacrifice he did.

Please enjoy, and it would be lovely if you left a review. Thank you.

RueLin

Part One

Faith

He was twelve when he first noticed her. And the first thing he thought was how she managed to elude him all these years. He knew the caravan from Amegakure traveled to Konoha every summer, and since school was out for two weeks, he often took Sasuke to see what the commotion was all about. If he didn't know everyone's name in the caravan, then he at least knew their faces. His heightened senses and eidetic memory wouldn't let him perform any less than that. He was to be a great ninja after all.

So then, he wondered again, who could she be?

He watched her from afar, as he hung out with some of the lads from the caravan. Though he was a few years older, Toroki thought Itachi was the coolest person in the entire world. To impress the young ninja, Toroki often told exaggerated stories of his travels. Sasuke was always very intrigued by them, as were the rest of the neighborhood kids and Itachi always pretended to be at least interested, if not impressed. With all the missions he was assigned, there were few things that impressed him.

So, he thought yet again, enthralled, who could she be?

The first time he laid eyes on her, she seemed surreal with her glowing blonde hair and violet eyes and skin as white as snow. She held a melody of heaven at her fingertips. His sensitive ears caught a wrong note, but he hardly noticed at all. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her.

"Toroki, who's that girl?" he asked, cutting into the story the older boy was happily sharing.

All stopped and gazed over in the direction Itachi's finger pointed in.

"Ah, that's Shinpi, but everyone except Kaimu, the old minstrel, calls her by her stage name," he answered hesitantly, though he usually never denied Itachi of anything the boy ninja asked for.

"And what's that?"

"Mayuri, the lily."

"It suits her," he commented absentmindedly.

"I know what you're thinking, Uchiha," Toroki said and crossed his arms. "Everyone feels that way about her when they see her for the first time. I'll admit, even I did for a while, but you see that old geezer there?"

He pointed at Kaimu, who stood next to the angelic Mayuri like a dark oni that will devour who ever dared to venture close to her.

"He's Mayuri's guardian. Five years ago, when the tribe was traveling to Amegakure at the end of winter to make it in time for the Spring Festival, I found her in the snow, half dead. Some of the other kids and I carried her back and since then Kaimu has claimed guardianship over her and taught her his trade."

"He's really protective of her, and plain scary too," another kid named Shouma, added. "I know you're fearless and stuff like that, but I suggest that you stay away from her."

Though, Itachi seemed to take what they said into consideration, he wasn't deterred a bit. He really wanted to talk to her. He was sure her voice would be as sweet as the music she played.

As he took Sasuke around, hand in hand, he stayed relatively close to the girl and the place where she showcased her talent. The entire time, Kaimu stood behind her watching intently on her performance.

"Nii-san," Sasuke said with his little seven year old voice as he tugged Itachi's sleeve. "Where are we going next?"

Itachi looked down at Sasuke and back up at the girl who sat there patiently as her mentor took his turn with the kokyu. She sat there, unmoving, like a statue of a goddess. His entire being was captivated by her just sitting there.

"I don't know."

Sasuke's little brain started working. He adored his older brother more than anyone else, and it didn't take much thinking for him to understand Itachi. He also took a liking the girl when itachi had pointed her out, and it was true that the man who with as with her was scary, but Sasuke would walk on fire if Itachi wanted him too.

He sucked up a big breath and gathered up all his courage and let go of his brother's hand. He marched his way toward the girl and her frightening guardian. When he made it to their stall, Sasuke looked up at the man named Kaimu. Somehow up close the man looked even more frightening with his long shaggy hair, scraggily beard and sharp eyes.

Sasuke gulped and turned toward the girl shakily. She looked at him with eyes larger than the moon.

"My name is Sasuke," he announced loudly. "What is yours?"

"Mayuri," she said and her voice brought a new blush across Sasuke's face.

"N-nice to meet you," Sasuke said with a shy smile.

"Nice to meet you too," she said with a bright dazzling smile.

"Shinpi," Kaimu's commanding voice said and Sasuke flinched. "Is this your friend?"

Sasuke panicked. But the girl just wrapped a comforting hand around his distressed shoulders and said, "yes," with a smile. "He's someone I met with another group of kids with Lupa. We haven't been formally introduced yet though. Kaimu, it is my free time now, isn't it? May I go?"

"Yeah," Kaimu said lazily handing her a small purse of allowance. "You can do whatever you want. Just be back before dinner. We'll work on tomorrow's show afterwards."

"Yes sir."

With a grunt and another warning glance at Sasuke, Kaimu left with his cart load of instruments. After he was out of sight, Sasuke let out a long sigh of relief and fell to the ground in a heap of sluggish muscles.

Mayuri came and crouched down on the ground besides him. "So, Sasuke," she asked, "what is it that you are here for?"

The smile returned to Sasuke's face and he stood up quickly and waved toward Itachi.

From where he was standing, Itachi strode forward with his hands in his pockets and a curious smile lit on his face. Who would have thought that his troublemaking little brother would actually drive away the big bad wolf. He owed one to the gutsy kid.

"Mayuri, this is my big brother!" Sasuke introduced enthusiastically. "His name is Itachi and he's the best of the best at the Konoha Ninja Academy and the world!"

"I do well enough," Itachi said modestly.

And that was the start. Every year since, during the summer, Itachi made sure his schedule was free for at least a week. Between missions he would take Sasuke out to meet with her. And he anticipated the aroma of summer more and more every year.