So, here's the next chapter. I just really wanted to get this idea out, and i was feeling depressed about how little attention people pay to this story. I'm hoping that the further i go with it, the better it will compare to my other stories. Hopefully. Of course, if i get more reviews, i'll get a better idea if people actually enjoy reading this, or if they just read it b/c it's at the top of the list right after i post it. But reviews could help with that, too, even if this is the only time you ever read it and you never intend to read it again. Please review!!!!! If i'm writing bad, tell me how! If i've got something you like, tell me about that, too! Everything helps, as long as it isn't done in a superior way [that is, talking down to me, treating me like dirt, something like that...yeah] In other words, keep it constructive and in good spirits, k?
Alright, i guess that's more than enough from me for now. Please, read! Enjoy! And I hope you have fun with this chapter.
disclaimer-yo no...own...Naruto....yeah, my spanish sucks. Don't even know how to say 'own'... but 'yo' means 'I'!! :)
[yeah, i'm dork sometimes]
Some time had passed since that one night, the night of Itachi and Samui's first kiss, and the revealing of the secret. She never did tell anyone, and all that changed from that was that she would occasionally come over and take the two boys out around town, or just Naruto if Mikoto couldn't get Sasuke away from Fugaku and his training. The next couple of years passed by like that.
Sasuke, for his part, was getting more and more withdrawn and frustrated. He never seemed to match up to his father's expectations. Even though he treated Naruto poorly, and practically ignored Itachi these days, Sasuke still loved him. He asked him about it one time while taking a short break, which was really hard, seeing as how Sasuke was having trouble breathing. That was the only time they would get a break when training, was when Sasuke was too tired to keep going. So, he lay there, huffing and puffing, trying to get his breath back.
"F-f-father?" Uchiha Fugaku looked up from his musings.
"Hmm?"
"Wh-why do-you-tre-treat- Naruto nii-sa-san so-po-poorly?" Fugaku raised his eyes in an attitude of, 'give me strength.
"Isn't it obvious?" Sasuke just kept breathing hard, so Fugaku rolled his eyes and answered.
"That Naruto brat, for one thing, slows down and distracts you from your training, and I already know how much potential you have. You could be the greatest Uchiha that has ever existed! Yet you slow yourself down so that he will feel that he can catch up. Ha! He isn't even an Uchiha, unworthy of your attention. That is the second reason. He is a bother and a distraction." Sasuke tried to ignore it, but it hurt to think that his father felt that Naruto slowed him down.
"And wha-what about It-Itachi?" Fugaku's breath caught for a moment.
"Itachi… Itachi has shown that he can take care of himself. He is highly regarded in the village, and is developing his talents well enough on his own. I, don't ignore him, I just-I give him his space." He hoped that answer would do for now. He didn't like to admit it, but he did ignore Itachi. It had happened some time ago, while Mikoto was away at market with the boys.
"Itachi, your promotion to the anbu black ops is wonderful, and presents us with a fantastic opportunity to get intel on the village's more, quiet goings ons. You will prepare and bring reports to the Uchiha council every two weeks on your actions and also on any other useful secrets that you have gained through that service. Understand, son?" Itachi shuffled a little bit.
"Father, isn't a shinobi's first duty to his village?" Fugaku looked at his son in slight surprise.
"What's this? You think that the village is more important than the clan?!" Itachi took a breath.
"Father, don't we Uchiha have a little too much opinion of ourselves? I mean, if we were that great, we would already be village leaders, and there have been more powerful shin-"
"Stop right there!" Fugaku was breathing heavily in anger. "Don't even suggest that someone else can match an Uchiha! Our power is elite, and one day we-" but here he stopped, couching hard on his words… literally of course.
"Father… are you…"
"I [couch] I'm fine!" He coughed again, thinking Darn Namikaze! "Out. Get out!" Itachi quickly got up, but paused at the door. He knew exactly why his father had had to stop, but he still felt concern for him. He was his father, after all, and he had been good time, mostly, over the years.
"Are you sure-"
"OUT!"
Since that time, Itachi and Fugaku didn't talk much to each other, and Fugaku couldn't do anything to try and change Itachi's mind because of that seal from the yondaime hokage, but Sasuke didn't know about that., and if Fugaku had his way, then Sasuke would lead the Fugaku had his way, then Sasuke would lead the Uchiha in their grand revolution, and maybe even kill that Namikaze brat, proving her knew where his loyalties ought to be. For right now though, Sasuke looked at him oddly.
"If he's really-getting that powerful shouldn't you be- helping him more?" Fugaku took a moment before answering.
"Well, he may be… more powerful than I am, now," he admitted. He never wanted to, but his first son was truly a prodigy, but once Sasuke learned how to harness the power of his bijuu, then he would be unbeatable. He smiled.
"Well, son, it's time we started up on our training again. Now, we'll start off with the phoenix fire jutsu." Sasuke sighed. His breath wasn't really back yet, but if it was time, it was time.
"Yes, father." He pushed himself up from the ground, and walked over to the side. He took a deep breath, and began to gather his chakra, and form the shape he would need. The made the hand signs, and let go.
"Phoenix fire jutsu!"…
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Naruto was in the woods, practicing his taijutsu. He didn't work on ninjutsu so much, not when Itachi wasn't around. It made more sense when he was there to explain things. He always explained things until Naruto understood, and he would work at it until he found the right way to explain it.
For now, Naruto was just kicking at the trees, sometimes trying to push off one tree to jump to another. It was silly watching a kid trying to jump that far, who was only about seven years old. He kept slipping anyways, but after a few seconds, he would get up and try again.
This time he stayed down a little longer.
"Sasuke, I promise, one day, I'll be able to match you! I'll do it, nii-san." He looked up, smiling, then frowned, noticing something off to the side of the clearing. Itachi had given him a lecture on being observant, and then trained him on tracking (just the basics, mind you), and now he noticed things more often that he once would have glossed over or missed altogether. There was a little girl over behind the tree watching him.
"I wonder what she's doing?" He stretched as he stood up, then started to walk over to where she was. He noticed that she hid completely behind the tree as he got closer. He grinned.
As the girl was looking to the side of the tree that she had been sticking her head out from, Naruto snuck around the other side. Just because Itachi hadn't trained him in how to be sneaky, or stealthy, as Itachi would say, he could still do it. The girl was still inching out, trying to find him when he tapped her on the shoulder, and she jerked, then slowly turned her head till she could see him. Naruto smiled wide and held out his hand.
"Hey! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Want to be friends?" The girl *meeped* and fainted. "Huh? What was that about," he asked no one, scratching behind his head.
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A few weeks later, Fugaku was walking down the streets. He had decided that he should go on patrol that night himself. It had been a while, and it would do him good to be out of his office in the police corps building. However, his smiled turned to a frown as he saw a shadowy figure walk down a dark alley. He followed.
Reaching the alley, he activated his sharingan in order to see down the alley better, just in case. He scanned the alley, and was shocked to find…nothing! Turing around, he found himself face to face with…someone, hiding their face behind a mask, and then his world was no more.
Fugaku looked around. It was strange. What happened? This was not Konoha! And the colors were all wrong anyways. It was almost like everything was inverted or something. Then there was the voice.
"So, Fugaku-sama, what think you of your little flock o Uchiha? And feel free to speak your mind here. Here, things are as I say they are, and here, you shall be free of your little… impediment." Fugaku whirled as he tried to locate the voice, but it was all around him in this world.
"Who are you?!" There was a chuckle.
"It doesn't matter who I am, but what does matter is what you really think. So, my previous question: what do you think of your little clan of Uchiha that you have here?" Fugaku braced himself, just in case the voice lied.
"The Uchiha are the Elite, and we are treated as commoners when we should rule Konoha!" He stood there for a second, almost in shock, then he smiled. It was a little crazy looking, his smile, but then again, when you are forced to years to try and prevent the very thing that you actually desire, not even being able to speak in support of it, then find yourself a little giddy.
"Very good. That is what I would have said in my day."
"In your day?" There was a swirl of the inverted colors and a man with an orange mask and single eye-hole appeared.
"Yes, in my day. In my dad, I sought to prevent this, but my people rejected me, and I was banished. Now, I see that there is some proper feelings here again, so I will help you." Fugaku's eyes narrowed.
"How is that?"
"You see, we can spend a few days here in a matter of only seconds, and with that time, I will learn your personality so that I can being organizing this little coup that I hear your minions muttering about. I assume you are actually in favor of it, despite what you are…forced to tell them? Good. Then I will do that while you go about your duty. When the time comes, I will release that foolish seal on you, and you will be free to do as you wish. Of course, this will require you cooperation. What say you?" Fugaku didn't even need time to think it over.
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Sasuke noticed that he was unusually happy that day. He even let Sasuke stop training early. Sasuke was, of course, shocked.
"Sasuke, how about you take an early dinner." Sasuke dropped the kunai in his left hand that he'd been about to throw at a target.
"Whu-huh.." Fugaku gave his son a rare smile, then looked up at the barely cloudy sky.
""Well, you've worked hard the last few years, and things are about to get better for the Uchiha." His smile broadened. "Soon, everyone will see how powerful we are, and the respect that we deserve." Sasuke looked at his father, slight confusion on his face.
"Umm… if you say so, father." Fugaku looked straight at his younger son.
"Son, you have great power in you. One day, there will be no one able to match your power, and through you, the world will know that the Uchiha are the greatest shinobi that there are." He rubbed the hair on his sons head. "And you will lead them all." Sasuke smiled.
"You bet, dad!" He gave him a thumbs up. Fugaku smiled and rubbed his sons head.
"That's my boy…"
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Soon after that Naruto and Sasuke were sent to the academy. Fugaku scowled when he learned that Mikoto had also signed Naruto up, but he relented. After all, nothing would be able to save that brat when that stranger helped them take over.
Itachi, meanwhile, was beginning to hear things through the Anbu's spies that troubled him, and that was why he in is the office of the Hokage that day.
"What is it, Anbu-san," the sandaime hokage asked as he shuffled his various papers. Itachi raised his head to speak, as he was kneeling (as was appropriate in the presence of the hokage).
"Hokage-sama, I don't know why or how, but I believe that the reports I've been getting point to a revolt of the Uchiha clan." The hokage stopped suddenly in his paper shuffling.
"Say again, Itachi." Itachi flinched at the use of his real name. He knew that this news was shaking up the hokage if he had slipped up like that.
"Hokage-sama, I recently wondered what the change in my… in Fugaku-sans attitude was recently, so I selected trusted Anbu spies to keep track of his movements. When that course revealed nothing, I decided that I should disperse those spies to other leaders of the Uchiha clan and Police corps.
"Doing this, we discovered that the old meeting place of the Uchiha clan had begun to receive more frequent use, and sending in one our powerful genjutsu specialists, we discovered… strong talk of Elitism. In a violent sense, that is." Sarutobi stroked his beard with a worried look in his eye. He knew of the past problems between the Uchiha and the Senju, but he had thought that those were all left behind. Besides, the last of the Senju was no longer in the village…
"Is there a…leader to this… movement?" Itachi hesitated.
"It would appear, were he not being tailed by our…best," he began, hesitated to call himself the best, even though he was the captain of the Anbu, "that Fugaku himself was leading these meetings…" The hokage gave him a questioning look.
"Please, explain."
"Hokage-sama, I've been tailing him myself, and one of my subordinates had seen him, at the same time, leading one of these meetings. However, I can confirm that it was not him and he had no chance to make a clone, shadow or otherwise, and my tails on this other Fugaku have lost him." He bowed his head. "Even when I've tried to tail the second one he has eluded us. I can only assume another, outside of our…the Uchiha clan, that is, has been impersonating Fugaku." He paused. "I suspect that Fugaku knows the generals of what is happening, but that he is actually unaware the actual meetings and such." Sarutobi quirked an eyebrow.
"How's that?" Itachi once again hesitated, but this time his hesitation lasted about a minute. The hokage sighed. "Remove your mask, Itachi-san." Itachi did so, and the two looked each other in the eye. "Now, what is it that you aren't telling me?" Itachi took a deep breath.
"There is a powerful seal on my father that forces him to do what he can to curb any rebellious tendencies that he sees in the Uchiha."
"What?! How? When!?!"
"The fourth Hokage did it sometime before his death, and selected me to know this secret," he said, trying not to reveal any more that he knew, but it didn't work.
"I see…but there's more to this, isn't there?" Itachi blankly stared back at him. "I understand now why you didn't want to say anything about this before. As it was an order from the fourth, I think I can assume that you were sworn to secrecy. However, I think I can infer that this involves Naruto to some degree. I will trust in your judgment, however, in what I need to know about this… arrangement, we'll call it.
"In the meantime, continue to observe your clan. Do what you can from the inside to try and keep it down, and if you can manage, try to pick out more of the leaders, and I will see what I can do about this."
"Thank-you, hokage-sama," Itachi said, bowing his head. He got up to leave.
"Itachi-san, a moment if you would." Itachi looked back from the door.
"Yes, hokage-sama?"
"I believe that your brothers are having a family day at the academy, yes?" Itachi nodded.
"Well, I'm giving you the day off to attend this. I know how important your brothers are to you, but also how you feel about your duty. I suspect that's why you hadn't asked me, but now know that I grant you permission to be off tomorrow."
"Thank-you," Itachi said, smiling wide, beginning to step out again.
"Oh, and perhaps you could bring in that Samui girl you're dating to meet me sometime. I hear that she's a wonderful medic." Itachi gave a rare face fault to the comment before quickly removing himself from the vicinity.
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"Itachi-kun! I didn't expect to see you today! You've been so busy lately." Itachi could feel Samui's sadness as he approached. He had been waiting for her to get off of work for the last several minutes.
"Sorry, Samui-chan," he replied, bringing her in for a kiss. She giggled.
"Why Itachi-kun, what a nice greeting," she said, acting as if they never had kissed in greeting before. He grinned wolfishly.
"Well, I'd say you liked it, wouldn't you?" She laughed and the two started walking through town hand-in-hand.
"So, any reason you were able to see me today."
"After I gave my…report to the hokage, he gave me the day off, lasting through tomorrow for my brother's family day at the academy." He turned to her, his smile a little sad. "I'm sorry I can't bring you around my family. My father would be…worse than approving."
"Don't you mean less than approving?" He shook his head in response to her question.
"No, father would angrily to know that I'm in love with a girl outside our clan. He's… a bit of a purest." She frowned. "Normally, I would think that he would act violently, but lately he's been in a good mood and would keep it in, I think. But even then I'm not sure." Samui shook her head.
"Oh Itachi. I wish your father wasn't like that so much."
"Yeah, me too," he muttered. "Not to mention my whole family."
"Now Itachi! You're mother is perfectly accepting of us and you know it!" Itachi looked at a now unmoving Samui in surprise, then realization came and he chuckled.
"Sorry Samui, but when we think family in the Uchiha clan, we think of the clan itself. I meant that most of my clan has a pretty similar attitude to my father. They like to keep the Uchiha line 'pure' so to speak." He sighed as they kept walking, Samui appeased. "They are all so foolish."
"I couldn't agree more," a voice said. Itachi whirled, instantly moving Samui behind him. A strange looking man stood there, head covered in a dark hood. "My family has gotten foolish over the past few decades. In you, though, I can sense greater power than all the rest of this fallen clan. Perhaps you will be of use to me, eh?"
"Who are you? What do you want?" For the first time in years, Itachi felt fear for his life, but even more for Samui. He could feel the power of this man, and knew he didn't want to cross him. Why couldn't he be walking down a street more people used? This one was often empty, which was why they used it so often. The police corps might spot him and tell his father otherwise.
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough, and I think that you will be of great use to me… yes, and maybe one day…" There was a dark chuckle. "We'll meet again soon, Itachi boy. We'll meet again soon." He lifted his head up a little, and Itachi fell to his knees a second later. The man chuckled again.
"Remember what I said, Itachi, and then we'll see what happens." Then he was gone.
"Itachi! What's wrong!" Samui was instantly checking him for injuries, but she couldn't see anything. Itachi was clutching his eye, though. "Itachi-kun, is there something wrong with you eye? What can I do? Do you need help?" Itachi slowly pulled himself up to his feet.
"No, I'm fine. It was a… genjutsu." He looked at her. "He had a sharingan, and it's one I've never seen in person before…" Samui looked at him worriedly, but they just kept on going towards home.
What's going on? Itachi asked. Who was that, and how did he get the mangekyou sharingan?
So, next chapter will be the big one, and Itachi will leave the story for a good while. Sorry Samui-chan! [almost hurts that i'm gonna be breaking her heart....oh well!]
Also, there will be a little SasuSaku next chapter, and then it'll probably get bigger, depending on the focus of the chapter.
That's about it for now, so please review the story now. I'd really like some feedback. Especiially since this is the story i get the least feedback on... :(
Anyways, hope you have a great week! May your Monday be as good as possible. [ugh....Mondays]