Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the universe they live in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I don't make money with this story but write it solely for my own pleasure.


A/N: Well, that happens when I update update late in the evening - I edit the document and forget to save the changes... Now you have the story as it should be.

It's departing further and further from the canon; still I will continue it as it is already finished in its first draft... There will be more revelations now, and from chapter five there will be more answers than questions.

Thanks for your reviews!


Chapter Four: ...from Danzou

"What do you mean – not only suspicions and rumours?"

"Itachi knew that something had been done to you when you were a few months old. He had been only seven years old then himself, and no one cared to explain anything to him, but he had noticed that you had been taken away and that when you returned you were different: Quieter, less interested in moving objects and the people around you, less agile – as if you had taken a step backwards in your development. He tried to ask your parents about it, but their answers were rather evasive, so he drew the conclusion that something terrible had been done to you, so terrible that it had to remain a secret. He developed wild fantasies about what it had been."

"And our parents? They had allowed it to happen? Why did they not protect me?"

"They had no choice. They would have preferred to avoid it, but the safety of the village had priority."

Sasuke had a talent for avoiding the important questions, I realized.

"And thus Itachi was always suspicious against those men who had done something to you that he did not understand, and he thought them capable of doing other, even worse things. And he did not trust your parents to prevent it."

"Still it was only a suspicion", Sasuke said. "Not enough to kill someone."

"Also, Itachi got hints from Danzou."

"Who is that?"

"The leader of Root, a division of ANBU. A secret division of ANBU, answerable not to the Hokage, but to said Danzou. Worse than regular ANBU, which is dangerous enough as it is – never liable to the law, but only to the Hokage, with the permission to kill anyone whom the Hokage thinks necessary – or desirable – to kill, without any trial – just on suspicion. Exactly what you don't seem to approve of."

"Of course I don't. Joining ANBU was never my ambition. My ambition has always been to become so good that they would ask me on their knees to join, and I would always have answered: 'No, I will rather rebuild the military police.'"

"And still you wanted to kill Itachi without a proper trial, on mere suspicion."

"Not on suspicion!" I had managed to make him angry. "He himself had told me that he had killed the clan."

"He might have lied."

"Why should he have lied?"

"He might have tried to cover up for someone."

"For you, you mean?"

"Among others."

He brooded for a while, then he went on questioning me. "So what do you know? Or think? Did he kill the clan or not?"

"I told you already: I helped him kill the clan leaders who, as we feared, planned to do something to you – but it was him alone who went on with the killing when he got discovered."

He raised his brows in disapproval.

"You have already told me this", he said.

He had finished his work: On the back of the two shirts I had given to him shone in bright red and white the crest of the clan, not as round as it should have been, but otherwise very well-made... I complimented him again on the beautiful work, then we went inside to prepare lunch. To my surprise he helped me, but I refrained from commenting on it.

When we sat down to eat it was me who started the conversation.

"After I had fought the Hokage and left the village there was a deal with my nephews that the Uchiha would not be admitted to ANBU, nor to the position of Hokage. As some kind of compensation they got the military police, and the chairmanship of the council. The Uchiha did not mind it; they found it a fair compromise, but Itachi, as some clan members before him, was not content with it. He, who had been called a genius even at the age of seven was always bothered with this rule, as for him the ANBU seemed to be the elite ninja, and he craved for the acknowledgement that went with being admitted to ANBU. The clan supported his ambition because for them it would have meant that finally they would be able to learn about the ongoings in ANBU. They thought that Itachi's loyalty to the clan would be greater than his loyalty to ANBU."

"Why was the clan excluded from ANBU and the position of Hokage?" Sasuke asked.

Again I wondered about his talent to ask questions that led away from the real problems.

"People distrusted the clan after I had left the village and fought the Hokage – in a fight for life and death, and everybody thought that I had been killed. People thought that the clan had been on my side, which was not the case, and there were voices that called for their exclusion from Konoha. They had to make concessions to be allowed to stay, and the price was to be excluded from the position of Hokage and ANBU. The reasoning behind this is that ANBU is more or less a lawless organization, and that the Hokage has power over this organization. No one wanted any Uchiha in a position where they are uncontrollable, as they are far too powerful and their loyalty to the clan has always been greater than that to the village. As the military police they had to keep to the law, and they were answerable to the Hokage and the people of Konoha in everything they did."

"That's not bad, is it?" Sasuke said. "I would have been proud to see that the law is kept. I would not have minded to be responsible to the village."

"Still you left for your revenge."

"Nobody else would see that the law is kept – see that murder is punished."

He got himself a second helping – to be exact, he emptied bowl and pot while I was still busy with my first portion. He did not ask whether I wanted more.

"Go ahead, you are still growing", I said.

"I am not", he replied. "I stopped growing a year ago."

"I mean, you are still in the process of building up your muscles."

"I am not a weakling, am I?"

"Your bone structure is still changing – your shoulders are still getting broader."

"I don't think so."

"You are hungry and I am not", I said, rather annoyed. "Go ahead!"

Irritated he filled his plate.

"It was all in the generation of my nephews", I continued my story. "They did not like me, which always made me sad because we had been quite close when they were small. After all I had helped their mother raise them. But when they grew up and learnt what I had done to their father they withdrew from me, and after some time I ceased to regret it, for they had turned out all boring, always keeping to the letter of the law. There was no fun in their lives, no ambition, never anything new. It was all about loyalty to the clan and keeping up appearances, so that no one could ever again blame the clan of causing any damage to Konoha."

"I can't blame them for withdrawing from you", Sasuke said.

"Well, probably not... At least they allowed me to care for their children, my great-nieces and great-nephews."

It was the story as I had always told it, not only to others but also to myself. It fitted into the image I had of the clan and myself: They were boring and law-abiding, giving far too much thought to honour and respectability – I was strong, ambitious, charismatic and passionate.

"They betrayed their mother", it suddenly broke out of me. "They would have allowed her to be killed! They would have allowed her to be sacrificed! In the end, I was the only one to defend her."

"Why should she have been sacrificed?" Sasuke asked.

"For the sake of the village – it was always for the sake of the village. In the end even she herself had agreed to die: The pressure had been too great. The will of fire they called it: Always be ready to sacrifice yourself for your country, to die in order to protect your friends. They did not see that they were sacrificing the most beautiful, the wisest, the kindest and most warm-hearted woman who had ever lived. Only I who loved her and could not live without her was ready to defend her with my life."

"You have lived without her for quite some time", Sasuke observed dryly.

"Maybe – but what kind of life has it been?"

I was upset – I could not go on talking – I left the room.

When I returned, Sasuke had cleared up, and he had made coffee. He poured me some, and I added some milk: The colour of the coffee changed from black to a dark brown. I poured some more milk, so much that it flowed over the top of the mug, but it did not help much.

"If you put your spoon into it, it will stand straight", I said.

I did so, and of course the spoon did not stand but fell to the side of the mug. The coffee was strong, but still liquid.

"There are little symbols on the side of the pot", I explained, "and on the side of the coffee machine. A big cup and a small cup – and numbers. They show you how much coffee you need."

"I know this", Sasuke said. "I always drank coffee at Orochimaru's place. I like it strong."

I took a few sips and poured more milk into my coffee. Finally its colour became a decent light brown. He also took a few sips, then he stood up to get some sugar, which he had never done before.

"Anyway, thanks for the coffee", I said when he returned. I felt that he deserved it.

He blushed and lowered his eyes – I had managed to embarrass him. "You're welcome", he muttered, barely audibly.

"They would have sacrificed you too", I continued my story. "But then Itachi volunteered to sacrifice himself in your stead."

"How's that?" Sasuke asked.

"He decided to kill the men he suspected to be doing something to you. Also he volunteered to acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"He sacrificed himself by volunteering to acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan", Sasuke repeated. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"I am not. He told you about the price you have to pay for it, didn't he?"

"Blindness, yes."

"And having to kill one's best friend, don't forget it."

"It's still ridiculous. He could have refused. I would have refused. He did not have to acquire it."

"In a way he did", I replied. "Though maybe it was all my fault. For a whole generation there had been no one with a Mangekyou Sharingan, and you younger people did not even know that it existed, and even less you knew how to acquire it. Danzou did not know about it either - it had always been a secret of the Uchiha clan. It was only me who told Itachi about it, and Danzou learnt it from him."

"Why did you tell Itachi? Did you want him to kill his best friend?"

"I was careless. I liked him when I first met him, because he was strong, open-minded and fed up with the clan's way of keeping to rules as if they were everything. He hated rules: Those he thought unjust, as the one that prevented him from entering ANBU as he deserved it, considering his skill, and finally showing his valour – and those that seemed arbitrary to him, made up for no other purpose than to limit his growth, for no other reason than the jealousy of those who were less gifted than he was. He thought that ANBU was the perfect place for him: no rules, no laws, no limitations – the permission to use any means he thought necessary to achieve his aims.

"I liked his ambition and his free spirit, so I got careless and told him about myself: How I had been a great fighter when I was young, how I had killed my best friend and gained the Mangekyou Sharingan, how I had plucked out my brother's eyes and stopped the descent into darkness. It was not my intention that he should acquire the Mangekyou Sharingan – my story had rather been meant as a warning."

Not really, as I recalled. I had just told it without much thinking and without caring what effect it might have on Itachi.

"Only too late I realized that I had misunderstood his character: He was not free and independent, as I had thought him to be, he did not long to be strong and his own master, bound only by the rules he had made up himself: He was just hungry for recognition from the village, no less than the rest of the clan, only that he was not content with the role of the perpetually repenting sinner but wanted to be treated as any other shinobi of the Leaf: According to his skills, not to his background. He would do everything they wanted, even without them having to ask for it, and so, when he had learnt about the Mangekyou Sharingan, he went to them immediately and told them about it, even though traditionally it had been a secret of the Uchiha clan. He would have done anything, and in the end his will to betray himself and the clan was rewarded: they accepted him for ANBU, forgetting that the rule that prevented the Uchiha from entering it had been introduced because they were too strong. Yet they demanded a price: First they required him to kill his best friend Shisui to obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan..."

"I remember how they came to question him about the death of Shisui", Sasuke interrupted me. "They wanted to arrest him, but could not, as he was ANBU and only responsible to the Hokage."

"Well, that's what being ANBU is all about. Have you ever realized what the abbreviation stands for? It's the Assassination Unit, which is a euphemism for murder unit, with the permission to kill whenever the Hokage thinks it necessary, or at least useful."

"You killed too", Sasuke reminded me.

"That was different", I answered. "I killed in passion, and in despair. And in battle, in a fair fight, man against man. I was not killing in a cold calculating way as Itachi did: ‛If I kill my best friend, I will obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan and be accepted into ANBU' - as all members of ANBU do. I have not even killed in that cold, impassive way when I gained my Mangekyou Sharingan – I killed my best friend by accident, confusing him with someone else, and then I discovered that I had gained some new powers. And with my brother – I did not even kill him. I just plucked out his eyes."

"You are absolutely crazy", Sasuke said.

"And still you listen to me."

"Out of boredom, that's all. Now continue your story."

"The murder of Shisui made Itachi dependent of the Hokage's goodwill. - Don't ever enter ANBU, Sasuke, because once you have killed on order, you will never be free again. The one who ordered you can always withdraw his protection – if you refuse to obey another, even worse order, or just on a whim – and then you are dead. If you kill, then only because it's your own choice, and then take all responsibility for it upon yourself and be ready to bear the consequences."

"I don't plan to kill anyone, now that Itachi is dead, except you of course, for killing the clan, as soon as I have fully recovered."

"That's what I mean", I replied, aiming for a humorous tone - but of course I could not completely hide my disappointment. I had thought that I had made some progress in gaining his trust.

"You still haven't told me what is most important", he continued his inquiries. "Why did they make him gain his Mangekyou Sharingan in the first place? What was in it for them?"

"You still don't know? They wanted to turn him into a tool – a perfect weapon in their hands, that would do exactly what they wanted it to do."

"So to make him a weapon they needed him to kill, and in order to make him a perfect weapon they needed him to kill his best friend and obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"Exactly."

"But why did he agree to this? He might have refused to kill Shisui and returned to being a regular jounin. That's what I would have done."

"I already told you one answer to this question: He was ambitious, and joining ANBU was the dream of his life. The other answer is that he wanted to protect you: If he had not agreed to become a tool of theirs, they would have made you their tool. You would not have refused – you were only seven then, and could not have resisted."