retrospect Chapter 2: with my bare fingers, a naruto fanfic

restrospect (working title)

subtitle: WHAT THEY DID AFTER HE ABANDONED THEIR HEARTS AND LEFT

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chapter 2: caught a tree (with my bare fingers)

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WARNING!! MAJOR SPOILERS UP AHEAD!!

Continue at your own risk. :D

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if I were the court and you were the judge, who would be guilty of treason?

Uchiha Sasuke.

Did he have to do with anything that his life stood for?

Probably not.

Uchiha Sasuke.

The name repeated itself in his mind, never letting go.

Kisame barged into the room, pale and startled. His eyes bulged even more than usual, and his blue complexion looked a bit sickly. Itachi eyed him, from the bed, eyebrow raised, in his usual fashion.

"You…you heard, right? Orochimaru…your brother…"

Itachi stared at his partner a few moments longer, then turned over onto his side so that he faced the wall and not his hysteric roommate.

"Good-night, Kisame."

"Y-yes."

Of course I heard. Am I a fool?

Possibly.

7 YEARS AGO – UNKNOWN DATE, 2:45 AM

His motivation? None.

It's because I felt like it.

Hardly an explanation for his younger brother, but he gave it to him anyway.

Drowning.

He was the strongest shinobi of his class, that Uchiha Shisui.

But in the end pure water strangled him.

7 YEARS LATER, EXACT TIME UNKNOWN – A FEW MONTHS BEFORE PRESENT TIME

Uchiha Itachi was the master of murder.

Deidara described it succinctly to Tobi once.

"Cuz he's a beast, un. Never regrets anything, acts on instinct. It's impossible to tell what he's thinking cuz he doesn't think, un. Doesn't feel either, no motivation, no desire. There's this feeling within him, and it just tells him to kill. So don't cross paths with him, got it?"

"How do you know this…Deidara-san?"

Deidara smirked, blue eye and camera lens sparkling with amusement.

"Wouldn't you like to know, un."

Uchiha Itachi was also the one who picked Deidara up from the Hidden Village of the Rock and led him to join Akatsuki by defeating him in a short fight, so it was only plausible that Deidara had first hand knowledge of what Konoha missing-nin was like.

He'd been Itachi's partner for a year before the Akatsuki, trying to figure out the man's weaknesses, and he still doesn't understand the enigma of that person.

5 YEARS AGO – HIDDEN VILLAGE OF THE ROCK

"But…why?" He was referring to the mass murder of the legendary Uchiha clan. Just from hearing the vague details, Deidara's blood ran cold.

Itachi stared at his new blond companion, he didn't even blink. Uchihas were notorious for their stoic manner.

"Never ask me that question again."

The next morning, Itachi spoke up randomly.

"It's like why you gauged your own eye out to put a camera in place of it. It's like why day must turn to night, or why the sun sets."

"What, un?"

"I don't like repeating myself."

And that was that.

PRESENT TIME

Itachi didn't care that his foolish little brother had killed the idiot Sannin member, nor did he want to know how, nor did he wish to congratulate him. These things never concerned him.

SOME TIME AGO – ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE THE START OF THE NARUTO STORY

"I'm wrong, aren't I?"

Deidara sipped at his coffee. He looked at the newest member of the Akatsuki – a silver-haired, sickle-wielding, religious guy. Rather soft for a group of assassins at first sight, but then again he was immortal and was one hell of a potty-mouth.

"About what, un?"

"About that Itachi bastard. Even Kisame claims he doesn't know shit about the guy, hardly talks to him, that's what he said. But you seem to know a lot about the little piece of shit. He seems to talk to you the most, seriously."

"Depends on what you mean with most, un. For Itachi, most is like two words. 'Shut up,' or 'where's lunch' is what comes out of his mouth usually. He's like the most anti-social guy you'll ever meet, un."

Hidan snorted. "Yeah, on first impression. But no one's really fucking like that, or he'd be like a fucking ghost, seriously."

"You'd be surprised, un. You'd be surprised."

12 YEARS AGO – ITACHI IS EIGHT AND RESIDES AT HIS HOME, THE UCHIHA MANSION

Fugaku looked disapprovingly at his first son, Itachi. The boy was a prodigy, surpassing everyone's expectations, genius at all forms of the ninja art, yet he enjoyed lying on his back and staring at the clouds go by in his free time.

Even his five year old brother, Sasuke, had more energy than him, although, Fugaku had to admit, the little one was not as talented as his brother. Still…cloud-watching was not appropriate for a shinobi, especially one of Itachi's caliber.

He told Itachi this, and the glimpse his oldest son gave him never left his mind until his death.

Stone-cold dead eyes.

UNKNOWN TIME

"What do you think?"

The conversation was held in deep, gruff whispers.

"The devil stole his heart. Or he sold it for that fancy eye technique."

"That's what I vote, un."

"Deidara-sempai, I'm sure he's compassionate deep down inside."

"Compassionate, fuck. Tobi, the guy's killed his whole damn family without a second damn thought. How can you seriously think he's compassionate?"

"He didn't kill Tobi, un."

"I'd agree with that, but he's got one hell of the evil schtick. I mean, we ain't so fucking great either, but he's got that aura that you never fucking realize exists until you experience it, you know?"

"Uchiha Itachi is not evil. If he's not compassionate, he's not evil either."

"…Zetsu, tell your other side to shut the fuck up."

PRESENT TIME

Deidara's hand hesitated a little as he knocked lightly on the wooden door.

"Come in."

He took the invitation, and sticking his head through the clearing, saw Itachi lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Lunch."

The Uchiha didn't move from his position, so Deidara retreated from the door.

"Deidara."

He opened the door wider this time. "Yeah?"

"Come here." Itachi pointed at the ceiling. "You. You're the artistic one. Tell me what the ceiling looks like."

Deidara tilted his head up, despite the odd request. Tiny, subtle cracks and lines ran along and criss-crossed the ceiling, something that he hadn't really noticed before. Often, in the night, during bouts of insomnia, he'd stare at the ceiling to quell his restlessness. Why hadn't he noticed them before?

"Rivers, un. Intermingling with each other, intertwining, joining each other."

"Really."

"Yeah."

A few hours later, Itachi sat down beside Deidara in the latter's workshop.

"Wrinkles. Of a wasted, decrepit life."

"Excuse me, un?"

"Not mine. My father's."

He left abruptly, and left a startled look in the sculptor's eyes.

but I guess it's genetics, cuz I have them too

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A/N: Random Itachi-writing. I dunno. Don't ask.

And since I love Deidara so much (RIP, btw), I just had to throw him into the mix as well.

And so onwards to the next chapter! ...?