Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage, was more than a little perturbed to see a kid he had watched grow up stare at him like he was a ghost.
It would seem that his team had not been exaggerating when they had said that Itachi seemed to have been brainwashed into believing some strange alternate version of reality in which most of them were dead. Minato could think of a few motives for doing such a thing, but the likeliest one was that Itachi's captors had attempted to break him, though for what longer-term plan he could only speculate.
He needed more information.
But the way that Itachi was staring at him, he had a feeling that he might not be able to get it, as the kid (sure, he was a chunin, but Minato still remembered when Itachi had been about to enter the Academy, so he was always going to remain a kid in his eyes) looked like he was a breath away from shutting down completely.
"Hello Itachi, it's been a while," he said, instead of starting with the standard order to report.
Itachi nodded warily. "Yes it has." Itachi had been around 6 when the Hokage had died, so "a while" was a bit of an understatement, considering he was now 21. Idly he wondered if he should keep counting his age if he was dead. Did it count if he were no longer growing and changing? Was it now as though he were frozen in amber? Or did the fact that he was obviously able to retain new memories mean that mentally at least he was still getting older?
Itachi shrugged inwardly. It hardly mattered. Dead was dead.
If that was even what was going on.
"How are you feeling?" the Hokage asked him.
Itachi allowed himself a wry quirk of his mouth. "Physically? Like I was beaten up, and probably tortured before breaking my way out of an underground prison and running a good five kilometres before Kakashi and the others picked me up."
"'Probably' tortured? You don't remember?"
"Mentally," Itachi continued as though that was what the Hokage had asked about (and implicitly, he had), "I'm starting to get the impression that the only explanation for what I'm seeing is that I'm dead, drugged, under a really, really elaborate genjutsu, or…" Itachi trailed off, but he could see that the Hokage could hear what Itachi hadn't said. That a likely explanation for his mental state was that he had succumbed to the Uchiha family brand insanity in a new and 'interesting' way that might get him grounded for a very long time, if not forever, recommendation pending results of a thorough psychiatric examination.
Assuming that routines were followed in this bizarre world Itachi had woken up in, he had almost certainly ticked all the boxes to get himself sent up for that one anyway, just as a precautionary measure.
There was a pause.
Hokage and shinobi stared at each other, each considering the implications of the other's expression.
"You know why I'm here," the Hokage stated finally.
Itachi nodded. "Timeframe?" Itachi asked.
Minato filed that away. That question was only ever asked by people fresh from the Academy, people who were missing time, or people who were disoriented. This just added more evidence that Itachi was most likely psychologically compromised.
"The last few days," he responded aloud.
Itachi pondered for a moment.
Might as well tell the truth.
Couldn't make anythings more complicated for himself at this point.
"I remember fighting Sasuke, and then dying," he said flatly. "Then I may have lost some time, but the next thing I remember is waking up, chained in a cell in what I surmise was a Sound stronghold. I fought my way out, leaving… 23? No, 24 casualties behind me. I didn't stop to confirm any of my kills, not enough time if I wanted to avoid being mobbed, and I'm not exactly in the best shape, so some of them might still be alive." Itachi's tone however implied how likely he thought that was. He proceeded to tell the Yondaime about running through the forest, encountering Kakashi's team, and hearing their conclusion that Itachi had probably been drugged.
"How are you really?" the Hokage asked him then, his expression searching.
Itachi gave him a wry look. It was kind of the Hokage to sound so concerned, whether he be a figment of Itachi's imagination or not.
"Confused," was all he said.
The Hokage nodded as though this was an illuminating answer. Itachi wasn't to know, but it actually was. Namikaze Minato had been dealing with Uchiha for a long time now, through his genin Obito (though Obito himself was not exactly typical for his clan), and his wife's best friend Uchiha Mikoto. More to the point, because of that latter relationship, he had known Itachi since he was a child. He was well aware that the word "confused" from him was used in similar contexts to which another shinobi might me screaming something along the lines of, "What the fuck is even happening to me nothing makes sense here oh kami why kami why!?"
"You look as though you've seen a ghost," was all he said.
"Technically, I've seen several," Itachi replied. It sounded like a joke, but Minato knew that he was being dead serious.
Actually, Minato mused, that might explain a lot. Especially considering his statement that he, Itachi, thought he had died. He considered for a moment at the point of causing a shinobi to think that they were dead, and then realised – Itachi was not exactly being loquacious for someone in general, but by his own standards, he was being positively loose-tongued.
"Ghosts, huh. Myself included?" the Hokage asked shrewdly.
Itachi blinked at that, and then started to laugh.
It was not a happy sound.
"Did I die, after all?" he said finally, relaxing back on the pillows. He seemed almost relieved. "I was unaware that Kakashi and Kotetsu and Izumo had passed on, but it's the explanation that makes the most sense." He sighed. "Though this isn't what I thought the afterlife would be like. Frankly I was half-hoping for oblivion. At least then I could get some rest."
The Hokage watched him, and Itachi wondered at the emotion he could see behind those blue eyes. He noticed that they had laugh-lines mixed amongst the expected stress-lines. Itachi frowned (outwardly, not inwardly. If he was dead, it hardly mattered, did it?) a little at this.
"You look older than I remember," he admitted, when the Yondaime looked at him questioningly.
"When is the last time you remember seeing me?"
"Naruto was yet to be born, so I must have been about six." Itachi grimaced. He considered his next thought before he said it aloud, and then decided since he was either dead or in a genjutsu it didn't really matter if he said it. "I know you died to save Konoha, but it would have been better if you had managed to set up a successor. Sandaime-sama was…tired."
Minato wondered if the Sandaime Itachi was picturing had looked anything like Itachi himself did now.
This situation seemed delicate. Minato had been Hokage for 12 years now, and even before that time, he had had to debrief many ninja who were nearing the end of their tether.
Itachi had the look of a man who had reached that point a while ago, with the only thing between his sanity and curling up and falling into whatever his equivalent of a screaming heap being… well actually, Minato wasn't sure. It was exactly because of that though, that he didn't tell Itachi that he wasn't dead. He had no idea what effect that would have on the man, and he hated to lose a good shinobi like this. Hopefully with some time off to heal and some counselling, he would be able to make a full recovery. If nothing else, the efficiently ruthless side of the Hokage whispered, he needed to learn exactly what Itachi had been subjected to, to bring him to this point. Otherwise, this could happen to other ninja in his ranks.
Psychological weapons were more insidious than physical ones, and sometimes even more effective. Minato needed details, so that he could talk to his advisors about strategies to deal with this. More resilience training perhaps? Minato was almost distracted by considering the possibilities, but he turned his attention back to one of his village's most loyal ninja.
The Yondaime nodded seriously. "Itachi, I would like you to talk to a Yamanaka for a full debrief."
Itachi nodded. He had expected as much. He supposed that expertise in life carried on into death.
And if he wasn't dead… (he had noticed that the Hokage had neither confirmed nor denied his theory)…
If he wasn't dead…
Well, he would explode that bridge behind him when he came to it.