Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
RETROSPECT
SHISUI
There was no man quite like Shisui Uchiha. He was powerful yet gentle, ruthless yet compassionate and, above everything, he never stopped smiling. When Itachi and Shisui were younger and got into trouble, Shisui would be grinning as they carried out their punishment (usually doing extra chores or clearing up whatever mess they had made).
And even now, in such a serious time, Shisui still beamed amongst the dreary, haggard faces of their Clansmen as they plotted the coup.
Itachi was lucky to have been born fairly close to his cousin. They grew up like brothers and always had each other to play, argue and train with. Unfortunately for Sasuke there were no children in the Clan around his age, the closest being Itachi himself with a 5 year age gap. Itachi worried that Sasuke was lonely, since his parents didn't like him to get too close to other children and Itachi hardly had time for Sasuke anymore. He knew that he would have been lonely if he had grown up without Shisui to be there for him.
As Itachi waited for Shisui for some mysterious meeting the man had wanted, he listened to the Nakano River bubbling far below. He and Shisui had once had a close scrape here.
They had been mock-fighting, which often got out of hand when they were a lot younger, and Itachi had been forced to backflip from an attack Shisui had aimed at him...
As he was calculating what his next move should be, Itachi was puzzled by something. Shisui had stopped smiling and was looking at Itachi with wide eyes. Was he injured perhaps? Itachi had been a little rough with his kicks but-
His feet should have hit the ground by now. He was still falling, and, looking down, Itachi saw the river beneath his feet. With a burst of alarm he realised he must have leapt too far and was now sailing over the edge of the cliff. Desperately he reached out for something, anything, to latch on to. He was going to fall, he was going to fall and die!
Something grabbed his wrist and Itachi's arm jerked painfully as it took the weight of his body. His descent was stopped. Itachi had closed his eyes and opened them to see Shisui leaning perilously far over the cliff edge, face strained with effort as he held on to Itachi.
"Don't let go," Itachi said, panicking. Shisui grunted, possibly laughing.
"As if I would." Shisui was not much larger than Itachi and, judging by the way his teeth were grit like he was trying to break them, he was struggling to hold on. But somehow, hold on he did.
"Itachi, I'm gonna pull you up. On three: One, two, three!" Itachi knew now why Shisui had counted. He did it to steel himself for something that was going to hurt. Like ripping off a plaster or taking a deep breath while having broken ribs. At the time Itachi had thought Shisui was trying to freak him out and leave him hanging over the river as long as possible with his silly counting thing.
Shisui had pulled, emitting great shouts of effort and Itachi had scrabbled over the ledge and onto solid ground, trembling and very much shaken. His life had been in serious peril. He could have died.
As Itachi looked up at Shisui, he almost couldn't believe that the idiot was smiling. Sheepishly, the elder Uchiha rubbed the back of his head and said,
"Let's not tell our parents about this one, 'kay?"
Itachi had never told anyone about that incident, partly due to embarrassment – how had he not realised that he put too much power into his manoeuvre, let alone the fact he was standing on a cliff edge and any backwards movement should have drawn up a red light?
However the main reason Itachi still wouldn't tell a soul was because it still felt like a private moment between him and Shisui. Itachi had done something stupid and Shisui rescued him. A little wistfully, Itachi thought that was the kind of life he might like to have. Where it was okay to make mistakes because someone would always be able to catch you. He guessed it was too perfect a thing to wish for and the best he could do was to be there to catch others and help them back up if they fell.
The moon rose higher as Itachi reminisced and, eventually, he felt Shisui approaching. Itachi didn't really have the time to be waiting around for Shisui to show up, and started scolding before Shisui even came into sight.
"It's rude to show up late to meetings but, seriously Shisui, when you're the one who sets the time of said meeting it just becomes idiotic that you show up late." Itachi smirked a little, waiting for some sort of reply.
When Shisui stumbled into view all remarks and teasing were forgotten. Blood trailed down from Shisui's right eye, which remained firmly closed, and he looked like he had just been in a fight.
"What happened to you?" Itachi gasped, grasping Shisui's shoulders to stop him swaying so much. Shisui took a few breaths and moved himself out of Itachi's grip, showing he could still stand on his own feet. He looked grim as he said,
"Danzo stole my right eye." Itachi felt like the world had stopped spinning. Danzo? Why would he do that? "I was under orders to put Uncle- I mean, Fugaku, under a genjutsu that would stop him from trying to revolt. Apparently Danzo knew of this plan, didn't think it would work and…well," he gestured vaguely to his closed right eye, which now shielded nothing by an empty space.
Something rose up like a fire in Itachi. A way for their Clan's scheming to come to a peaceful end had been a hair's breadth away, and Danzo had stopped it, simply because he thought he was right in that it might not work?
The greatest man Itachi knew was standing before him, bleeding, missing one eye and it was a terrible sight indeed. Shisui saw the turmoil in Itachi and said softly,
"Don't hate Danzo for it. Maybe he was right; maybe I couldn't stop our Clan…" He seemed to lose himself for a moment before he looked hard at Itachi. "Danzo will probably come after my other eye and to shut me up once and for all. I want to give my left eye to you."
"But-" It was too much. Shisui would blind himself just to ensure that Danzo would not get his other eye?
"You're the only one that really deserves it. When I'm gone, you have protect both the village and the Clan."
"What are you talking about! Shisui, I-"
"A Shinobi's most treasured secrets lie in his corpse, right? Well, I'm gonna destroy mine. And I need to do it soon. That's why I need you to take my eye."
"So you're going to kill yourself? This is madness, you can't-"
"Listen, Itachi," Shisui snapped, making Itachi jump slightly. "Danzo will come after me and if he has my other eye, he will be too powerful. I can't let that happen…You're my best friend, Itachi. I want you to have this eye." His expression grew gentle, almost serene.
"I've taken care of everything. I wrote a suicide note, here-" he displayed a note, written in his surprisingly elegant handwriting. "No one will get suspicious of homicide." He gave the note to Itachi, who glanced at the brief message. "Now-"
With abrupt brutality, Shisui ripped out his other remaining eye. He didn't even flinch. Itachi looked on, feeling like he might throw up. With twin rivers of blood running down his face, Shisui presented his eye to Itachi, like one would present a king with a gift.
Itachi, despite everything, knew what to do. He had the eye implanted in one of his crows, silently promising himself to honour his friend's wishes and use it to protect the Uchiha name and the Leaf village.
"I know you can stop all this, Itachi."
"You don't have to do this." His voice trembled, his throat thickening with rising sobs. "You're my brother." An amused expression graced Shisui's features, blood running over the crease at the corner of his lip.
"Well, Sasuke's your brother. I'm your cousin Shisui, remember? Senility hitting you a little early there, Itachi?" Shisui joked, but turned more serious as he said, "Look out for my little cousin, your brother. Like I've looked out for my own brother." Even though he no longer had eyes to do it with, Itachi could see Shisui looking pointedly at him when he said the word 'brother'.
Shisui took a step back. Itachi's eyes widened. Another step. He paled. Another one. No, no no no-
"One, two, three," Shisui murmured. Then, with the final step, he plummeted over the edge of the cliff. Itachi might have screamed, he wasn't sure. He ran to the ledge, thrust his arm out, maybe he could still catch Shisui-
Too late.
Shisui was falling. And as Itachi watched his receding figure, he saw that Shisui was smiling.
…
The splash of water as Shisui had hit the river had been one of the most terrible sounds Itachi had ever heard. He knew that if you hit water from far up enough, it would have the same impact as hitting concrete. And, from the way Shisui had fallen, arms spread wide and body completely horizontal, the river might as well have been concrete.
Itachi had pinned the suicide note to a nearby rock with a kunai and left the scene as soon as possible. A kind of hard practicality had overtaken him as he had choked on tears, making sure to rid his clothing of any blood he might have gotten on him from Shisui's wounds and steeling himself for his path ahead: annihilating the Clan.
He had an excuse prepared for why he wasn't at the Clan meeting. He would say he got called away to a mission, that he couldn't discuss the sensitive detail.
Luckily his Father didn't give him too much hassle about why he hadn't been at the meeting. Itachi didn't think he could deal with that right now. Danzo had proved himself to be quite untrustworthy, stealing Shisui's eye like that. Itachi could respect Danzo before; he did a lot for the sake of the village and took on the dirty jobs, but the reason he took the dirty work was because he liked it.
That man enjoyed sending his ANBU out on assassinations, to be able to thwart a movement towards peace through mass killing purely because it didn't suit him.
But unfortunately, Danzo was in on everything and had dangled a golden opportunity in front of Itachi like a lion tamer taunts an animal with a piece of meat. A way to keep Sasuke safe. It wasn't ideal – it wasn't ethical – but it was a way.
Speaking of, Sasuke was looking depressed. He had been ignored by their father again, all the attention on Itachi. They sat on the decking, looking out towards their back garden.
"Father only cares about you," Sasuke mumbled. Itachi probably wasn't meant to hear that, but he knew it wasn't true. With everything going on, their Father just didn't have as much time to focus on his younger son. Although, Itachi mused, even if things had been peaceful, Sasuke would probably always be second to Itachi. The spare heir, Itachi thought bitterly. As if such things mattered.
"I guess you must hate me. It's alright. People often hate shinobi; it's pretty logical." Shinobi stole, murdered, destroyed and abused their power. Even to a ninja like Itachi, Shinobi were pretty frightening as a people.
"I don't feel that way at all!" Sasuke protested, looking slightly alarmed.
"You know, being the best isn't so important. Power corrupts and isolates you. Even if you were the embodiment of everyone's wishes," Itachi pondered, staring at the sunset. He thought of Shisui, so perfect and sought after. Maybe if Shisui hadn't been so brilliant, he might still be there. Itachi turned to look at Sasuke. "You know, I'll always be there for you, even if it's only as someone to surpass. Even if you do hate me…." Itachi trailed off and smiled. "That's what big brothers are for."
A loud voice rang through the house, breaking the moment.
"Hey, is Itachi in there!" For a second Itachi thought he might lose his composure. He thought he might run away, or break down into a sobbing mess. He knew someone was here to give him news of Shisui's death. He wanted to pretend he wasn't home. But it was just him and Sasuke. If whoever had come here didn't find Itachi they'd probably just interrogate his brother.
As Itachi made his way to the front door Sasuke got up to follow him but was told firmly to wait there.
This could get ugly.
Three ninja were waiting for him. Inabi, a young man with long dark hair and a consistently sour expression, Tekka, who seemed eternally bored and Yashiro, an older man with ash white hair and narrowed eyes. All members of the Police Force.
Itachi masked his features into slight intrigue. He had to play this out right.
"What's this about?" he asked. They got straight down to it.
"Two people weren't at the meeting yesterday. Want to explain why you weren't there?" Inabi asked. Accusation was clear in his tone. "We know ANBU can summon you at a snap of the fingers, which, by the way, is the excuse your Father gave us."
"But we're not Fugaku so don't expect any special treatment from us," Yashiro warned.
Itachi hoped this was all they came for. He wanted to grimace when he heard Sasuke creeping up the hallway to listen in. No doubt the other three knew he was there. Itachi got the feeling they weren't going to insist on privacy though – they would want to scold and embarrass him in front of his younger brother. Itachi loved his family but these three men were not the most savoury of characters. They were mean-spirited from all that hate.
"I understand; I should have been less careless," he told them sincerely. "Is that all?"
"There's one more thing: Do you know anything about Shisui Uchiha killing himself at Nakano River?" Oh no. Here it was. Itachi panicked for a second. Would they expect him to burst into tears, to fall to his knees? No, better not over-do it. He turned his expression into one of shock and hurt.
"Shisui is the other person that didn't come to the meeting last night. Actually, I seem to remember you two being like brothers, correct?" Inabi said, watching carefully. Itachi closed his eyes as he said,
"This is horrible. I haven't seen him recently…what a tragedy." He didn't want to do this. Itachi wanted to be anywhere but there. He almost wished he'd dived into the river, right behind his cousin.
Inabi looked sceptically at him.
"Right. The Police Force is going to launch an investigation into his death."
"Investigation?" This was going places Itachi couldn't steer it away from. Suicide should have meant no investigations were required. Yashiro fished a piece of paper out of his pocket. Itachi immediately recognised it.
"This is the note Shisui left behind. We've already analysed it and confirmed it's his handwriting."
He handed the paper to Itachi, who hesitantly took it.
"Why the investigation if it was suicide?" Itachi asked. He wished Sasuke would leave. He didn't want him listening to all this. Inabi's eyes lit up, as if he had been waiting for Itachi to say that.
"It wouldn't be difficult for someone with Sharingan to copy his handwriting." Itachi looked at the note, trying to imagine he was reading it for the first time.
"The most talented of the Uchiha – Shisui the Teleporter. He would take any mission, do anything for the good of the Clan." You don't know what's good for the Clan Itachi thought, trying to remain calm. This was getting to be too much. Inabi continued,
"It doesn't fit that a man like that would suddenly throw everything away, especially at a time like this." Itachi saw Inabi glance at something behind him. They knew Sasuke was there and couldn't say anything overtly about the coup. But Itachi could tell they wanted to. They had a great deal they would like to say to him, didn't they?
"Be careful. I wouldn't advise judging events by appearance, or by your own preconceptions," Itachi cautioned. They might as well just outright accuse him of killing Shisui.
"We'll leave that note with you. Put in a request for the ANBU to start sniffing around on this," Inabi commanded.
"Very well," Itachi agreed, and to his relief they began to leave. He couldn't take any more of this game they insisted on playing. Tekka, silent until now, decided to speak up all of a sudden.
"Let's hope we get a lead soon."
"Oh, and don't think you can sweep this under the rug. If you don't put in that request, we'll find out through our own connections to the ANBU."
That was it. Itachi wasn't going to stand for this any longer.
"Why don't you just say it! You think I killed Shisui, don't you?" Itachi felt his Sharingan burst into life. He was angry, so angry. Shisui's death, the Clan's insistence on the coup and his task ahead – all of it made lava burn in his chest.
"Yeah, that's right, brat," Inabi grit out. All three turned back to face to Itachi and red blazed from their eyes.
"If I find you've betrayed our Clan, I'll make sure you pay for your sins!" Yashiro promised. They suspected him. And they couldn't understand. In a second, Itachi made his decision. His only brief thought was of Sasuke. But he knew these ninja wouldn't hurt him, even if it was just to get at Itachi. With that, Itachi shot forward and landed hard blows to all three of his Clansmen, knocking them to the ground.
It thrilled him to see their faces in the dust.
"Like I said, you shouldn't go by preconceptions. For instance, you mistook me for a patient man. It's always the Clan, the Clan. You think too much of your own abilities without knowing the extent of mine."
Yashiro lifted himself to his knees.
"Shisui had been watching you recently. The strangeness of your behaviour…What the hell are you trying to pull you filthy little wretch!"
"Obsessed with the Clan and with our lineage. It enslaves and limits us." Itachi didn't know where it was coming from anymore. He was sick of it all. Something inside him itched to see them hurt, to see blood.
"Stop it, Itachi!" The sound of his Father's voice startled Itachi for a moment. When had he gotten back? "What's the matter with you! You've been acting odd lately…"
"Nothing's wrong with me."
"So why weren't you at that meeting last night?" Itachi thought of Shisui's falling figure. Had he kept smiling as he had hit the water, while his bones were being shattered and his muscles torn apart? Shisui had died for this Clan and Itachi couldn't cope with this fog of ignorance from the people he had sacrificed himself for!
"I achieved the next stage." Everyone was confused, Itachi could feel it. The ignorance, why couldn't they understand! The Uchiha crest, on the walls of the District, caught his eye and in a rush he flung a kunai straight at it, into the centre of the symbol.
"I've had enough of this. You lose sight of what's most important and focus only on the trivial."
Fugaku had pulled the three ninjas to their feet and they clustered around their chief, like a group of predators facing a single, larger threat.
"Arrogance!" Fugaku exclaimed. They were enraged, almost foaming at the mouth like the ignorant animals they were.
"I won't hear one more word! Anymore and you'll be thrown behind bars!"
"Please, Sir, just give the order!" Inabi snarled. Itachi was ready for them. He'd take them all down right now!
"Itachi, please stop!"
That voice. Sasuke's voice. Itachi turned and saw Sasuke, looking at him, partly hiding behind the doorway and looking…terrified.
It broke the spell. Sasuke's innocent voice…not ignorant, but innocent. It reminded Itachi of his duty, not to his Clan, or to his village or to Danzo and the Hokage, but to his little brother.
He dropped to his knees and bowed his head low. The stab it dealt to his pride was nothing, not compared to what might happen to Sasuke if he didn't right this.
"I didn't kill Shisui. I am truly sorry for my behaviour," he apologised. He waited for a few tense moments. Finally, Fugaku sighed,
"Well, he has been tired lately. Too many missions from the ANBU."
"But Sir!" Yashiro protested.
"ANBU are under the control of the Hokage," Fugaku spoke loudly to drown out the grumblings. "You'd need a warrant to arrest one of them. And as for Itachi, I take full responsibility for him." Another tense moment passed.
"Very well, Sir," Yashiro said unhappily. Itachi stood as his Father walked into the house. He felt his Sharingan morph into the Mangekyou and silently cursed. He didn't quite have control of it yet. No one saw though, did they?
He glanced at Sasuke, who was still watching warily. Itachi would apologise to Sasuke later, for scaring him and tell him not to copy his big brother's behaviour. Itachi had told Sasuke that, in a way, he was allowed to hate him, and Itachi could be okay with that. But if Sasuke was scared of him, well, that was a different thing altogether. The thought of Sasuke being scared of him…really scared Itachi.
Edited 3/7/15
So this is basically the form a few of the up-coming chapters will take: the detail of past events.
Thank you to akasukifangirl, The Only Sane One,bladz-liska and Shirayuki Hime999 for reviewing.
akasukifangirl: Yeah, sorry about that. I wrote that one just as it came to me. In hindsight I probably could have left Sasuke's revelation out of that one but yes, basically the numbers aren't adding up but there is a little bit more to why Sasuke left which I'll get to later. Haha, I think my brain's turning half-dead – too much of a workload right now with school…If only I could go to ninja school.
The Only Sane One: Thank you, it's always really good to know that people like the twist in this fic.
bladz-liska: Thank you so much, I'm really glad people like this. Originally I was going to have the story as a collection of one-shots but it ended up evolving into something different - I swear this story has a mind of its own. I think parts of the canon story have always bothered me so I put in my own little twist but it's really awesome that people like the changes. For me emotions and thought-process are a really key part of all stories so I'll try to make sure to include it. I hope you enjoy the other chapters (Also it's really great that people from all the over the world enjoy what I write)
Shirayuki Hime999: Thank you! I'm always really paranoid about predictability because I'm one of those people that watches or reads something and can guess what will happen pretty accurately. I love to be surprised by books or films. I might elaborate on what happened during the Chuunin exams or Sasuke's confrontation with Orochimaru later since I skimmed over it all pretty quick. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.
Thanks for reading,
Cipher.
