The first thing that he was greeted with when they finally made it to the main street was a line of bodies. They were uncovered. The ANBU working tirelessly to collect them all were too rushed to pause to find blankets and sheets to cover them up. Itachi watched as more bodies were added to the line-up under the watchful eye of the Hokage. The man looked impossibly old confronted with the bodies of one of the clans of his village. It was clear to see that the Hokage was not faking his grief at this terrible loss. He really had thought they could settle this matter between the clan and the village without bloodshed.
"Hokage-sama." Hound called out to him the moment that they hit the main street. Both the Hokage and the ANBU working around him turned to look at Hound, double taking when they saw Itachi walking along just behind him.
The Hokage's eyes widened. "Itachi-kun!" There was a joy mixed in with grief at his exclamation. He was happy to be confronted with a survivor, but it was a bitter happiness. The ANBU around him all started to murmur. It didn't take much to realise that they were relieved to find a survivor too. Clearly even this much death was too much for even the hardest of ANBU.
"Hokage-sama…" Itachi didn't know what to say. Even though he was addressing the leader of his village, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the line of dead. Luckily, it seemed that no one was expecting him to act composed during this situation, they were just happy that he had turned up alive.
"I found him making his way to main street." Hound reported. "It seems that he was absent during the attack. He missed the whole thing."
Itachi squeezed his eyes shut, suppressing tears. It was one thing to have a minor break down in front of your former captain, it was quite another to do so in front of the entire ANBU force. He had to keep a hold on himself.
"I'm thankful at least someone survived." The Hokage's voice was hollow. "We haven't found any injured so far, only the dead."
Itachi opened his eyes to see the Hokage openly flinch. An ANBU agent wearing a hawk mask was carrying a toddler past, adding the infant to the line. His stomach rebelled, and he felt his knees tremble. I should have tried harder to get the babies. He thought dumbly. I knew deep down that they wouldn't be spared, yet I only tried to get those over the age of four.
"Where are the others?" the Hokage gestured towards the toddler, hand shaking. "I can't see any of the older children here."
An ANBU agent nearby sighed. "We think there might have been some sort of get-together for the clan children last night. They must be all in the same place, and we haven't found it yet. We're not done sweeping the whole compound, after all."
The Hokage grimaced. "Please find them quickly. Even in death, they shouldn't be separated from their loved ones too long."
Itachi let out a shuddering gasp. His situation had come rushing back to him. In the daze of being confronted by the bodies of his clan, he had forgotten what he had come out to do. He had people he still needed to protect. Itachi fell to his knees, suddenly dizzy. He couldn't bring himself to speak. The last thing he wanted was to expose those poor children to this line-up of corpses. Part of him wanted to just leave them sleeping forever in the secret room, they would certainly be happier.
He felt the familiar weight of a hand on his shoulder again: Hound. "I'm sorry Itachi. I know what your brother meant to you."
Hound had mistaken his reaction to the ANBU report on the children. He was trying to offer comfort. For a minute Itachi's blood ran cold as he contemplated the thought of Sasuke's body being added to the line of corpses.
Itachi shook his head, trying to dispel the image. "No. That's not it." He straightened up. "Hokage-Sama."
The Hokae turned to him, puzzlement in his features. Itachi knew he was acting strangely, and he knew that he was beating around the bush when it was far more logical to just come out and report what he knew directly, but his mind was in a hundred different places right now. "Itachi-kun?"
"The children." Itachi forced the words out. "Eighteen of them between the ages of two and eleven. I know where they are."
The Hokage's eyes widened, and suddenly the full attention of everyone in the immediate proximity was on him. "You discovered the children before coming here?" The Hokage asked. There was immense pity in his voice. He had jumped to the same conclusion as all the other ANBU: that Itachi had stumbled across the bodies of his smaller relatives first.
Itachi shook his head, dispelling yet another horrible image of his young charges brutally slaughtered like the scene in the main hall of the shrine. "No. I've been with them all night. They're all asleep under the Naka Shrine. Sasuke organised a sleepover last night, and we ended up camping in the secret room under the shrine when the kids complained that they were bored of camping in the woods all the time."
"They're alive?!" The Hokage exclaimed. The ANBU around him quivered. This was far more than anyone had dared to hope for when they had heard there had been a terrible attack in the Uchiha district. Itachi could sense the relief and happiness in the air; it was that tangible.
"I don't think… he… knew of the room under the shrine. Not many people do. I was the one that suggested sleeping in there to Sasuke when the kids were spitballing interesting places to camp." Itachi found that the small lies that explained their bizarre sleeping arrangements when they were supposed to be unaware of the impending doom of the clan sprang to his lips easily. A lot of it wasn't lies. The kids were kind of bored of always camping in the same place, and he had been the one to suggest the secret room to Sasuke. It takes a special kind of skill to lie convincingly to a shinobi, but Itachi had grown up around them. He was a good liar.
"My god…." The Hokage didn't quite know what to make of this. "That's how you missed the attack?"
"I was watching over the kids." Itachi said. "I didn't know anything was happening until…" the horrible sounds of last night's attack sprang to the forefront of his mind, making him falter, "…until we were all woken up by a group of people breaking into the shrine. We technically weren't supposed to be under the shrine, so we didn't go out and investigate. Soon after that we heard someone else enter the room above us and slaughter everyone. It was over so quickly, and I had eighteen children to protect, I didn't dare open up the trap door of the room to investigate." Lies were spilling out of him. It was true that he had eighteen children to protect, but that was no real excuse as to why he hadn't opened up the secret room to shelter the adults who had been hiding scared in the main hall upstairs. He wondered if he would ever wash their blood off his hands. Even though he hadn't struck the killing blows, it was clearly him that had killed them. "I waited until I thought it might be safe enough to leave the children hiding by themselves for a bit to come and investigate, then I found…." Itachi felt his voice crack, "…. This…." He gestured around him.
The Hokage examined him for a long moment. Itachi met his eyes squarely. He knew the Hokage had immediately suspected that he had fudged the details of his story, if not outright lied. He also knew that Sarutobi was not going to reprimand him for doing so. The Hokage was wise enough to know that Yoshiki had executed the clan on orders. He was also wise enough to know that Itachi had probably been aware that the purging was going to happen prior to the start of the attack. The Hokage nodded at him once, a look of deep thanks in his eyes. He was thanking Itachi for doing what he could: for interfering to save as many innocents as he could get away with. In that moment, Itachi knew that he had gotten away with his actions over the past fourteen hours. Both him and the surviving Uchiha children were now under the direct protection of the Hokage. Most likely Danzo would never stop watching them, but he had no reason to harm them. This was Itachi's victory, however small.
The Hokage whirled around to gesture at a couple of ANBU. "Escort Itachi-kun back to the shrine." He ordered. "Recover the children and secure them at the western medical unit. Don't take them to the hospital, we don't want to attract too much attention. They need to rest somewhere out of the public eye for now."
Itachi scrambled to his feet. His Hokage had given him orders. He needed to follow them. He had no time for grief or regrets. "Hokage-sama, please grant us permission to clear the shrine of the dead before retrieving the children. I want to request that we do our best to make sure they see as little of this as possible." He gestured to the bodies of their clan. Sasuke would not see the broken bodies of their parents lying on the ground, just a number to be counted in preparation for burial, if he could help it. He was feeling similarly protective of all the other children. It was like at some point in the night they had all become his little siblings.
"Your request is granted." The Hokage nodded. "Make sure that you take the children through the cleared areas to get them to the medical unit." He instructed. "Try to avoid them seeing any of the dead." The Hokage glanced towards the man still standing at Itachi's side. "Hound, I'm putting you in charge of the extraction and protection of the Uchiha children. With Itachi's help, rescue the kids and guard them until further notice."
"Yes, Hokage-sama." Hound nodded and turned to Itachi. "Let's go."
Hound turned and started jogging down the main street, making his way towards the shrine. Itachi made a short bow to the Hokage, then whirled around and ran to catch up. He barely noticed as a woman in an owl mask and a man in a monkey mask joined them, flanking the two of them as they ran towards the shrine. All he could think about now was getting back to the kids and getting them away from the compound and into a safe place.
Just a little longer. He told himself. Just a little longer until this ordeal is over, then you can rest Itachi Uchiha.
Just a little bit longer….
A/N:
All of your advice on chapter length is duly noted. I'm going to try and write chapters in longer chunks now. Unfortunately, the next chapter is already written, and it's not particularly long either (like this one... sorry), but it is loner than this, so look forward to that! I'm just in the stages of proofreading it and editing it now, so you guys should get it soon!
