- CHAPTER 11 - Lost Pages of History -

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Shift.

Roll. Shift.

Wiggle. Wiggle. Shift. Shift.

…Okay, none of this was helping at all.

'Argh!' Giving up on finding a more comfortable position, Naruto opened his eyes. 'Damn Itachi and his stupid sleeping habits!'

Despite his aggravation, only an inaudible sigh escaped Naruto's mouth in the end. He tried not to think too much about what this newfound restraint meant. It was bad enough that he got Itachi's somnial difficulties, but now he had to keep up with the other ninja's around-the-clock paranoia too?

Whoa, did he just learn a new word? Somnial? He didn't even know there was an actual adjective for referring to sleep-related things!

Um, anyhow… judging from the faint light that was just starting to creep into his tent, Naruto guessed it was fairly early in the morning—no later than five, by his most conservative estimation. If he had made too much of a ruckus, he would have surely woke up the others.

And his best excuse for that would have been Itachi was having a nightmare. Talk about giving a sob story…

But if he stayed quiet enough as he did now, this was the time when most people would be the most relaxed in their sleep. Indeed, Itachi had exploited this fact extensively for covering his Akatsuki activities prior to the house arrest. And even before he met Madara, Itachi had used these early hours for training. Regardless of his change in purpose though, his biological clock had remained the same—and now Naruto was stuck with a body drilled for accomodating an early-riser.

Naruto could no longer sleep in even if he wanted to. It was a complete and utter outrage!

Awake and alert, he really had nothing better to do though. So despite his usual difficulty in 'keeping perfectly still' outside senjutsu use, Naruto fell back on Itachi's regular schedule and began to meditate. 'One fifth of non-augmented chakra level restored… Ninjutsu and genjutsu below B-rank preferred… Engaging opponents above jounin rank highly inadvisable…'

Naruto did not realize he had gone into Itachi's dry reporting mode until a familiar voice suddenly whispered from outside his tent, "Are you awake, Itachi?"

Tensing in his sleeping bag, Naruto involuntarily reached for a weapon pouch. Why did Fugaku come by so early? "Yes, father. Is there a problem?"

"No," the clan head replied quickly, "but you need to see the elders."

'Elders?' Naruto was confused. From what 'he' knew, the Uchiha clan was not governed by an oligarchy; short of unanimous opposition from the whole clan, Fugaku's sole authority among clansmen was absolute. So why would 'Itachi' need to see a bunch of doddering old men who were only ever respected for their more advanced age? Alright, maybe he was being a little harsh. They could be useful as living sources of obscure information, after all.

That did not answer his original question though.

Still wary, Naruto quietly got out of his sleeping bag and began to roll it up with practiced ease. "And Hokage-sama…?"

"Can wait," Fugaku cut him off, "this is more important."

"Alright," Naruto murmured as he stared at his own hands—which were currently tying a single, but secure, knot over the sleeping bag. Er, Itachi had picked up some really peculiar skills. "I will be with you shortly."

Yes, Sandaime-jiichan could wait… for now. He might get something useful from this meeting to report back, after all.

"We will wait for you at the clan's meeting place." Fugaku sounded impatient. "I hope you haven't forgotten where that is?"

'How could I forget?' For the ANBU captain, it had only been two years since his last visit to the temple; for the Akatsuki member, perhaps longer. Still, how could he forget the place where he had painstakingly planted all those 'clues' for Sasuke? He had to set up everything away from Madara's scrutiny in one afternoon, too. Quite an effort, that was…

Great, he was thinking like Itachi again.

Hastily retreating from another man's memories before he could confuse himself further, Naruto answered, "Unless you have changed locations, I believe you are referring to the room under the seventh tatami mat on the far right side of Nakano Shrine's main temple?"

"Yes." There was an odd note in Fugaku's voice that Naruto could not quite decipher. "It's still that place."

When Naruto left his tent to verify the clan head's actual expression though, the man was already nowhere in sight.

.

Isolated near the edge of Uchiha district, the main temple of Nakano Shrine was still not too difficult for Naruto to find. Every tree and every stone around it was exactly the same as in Itachi's memories. If nothing else, the fan symbol emblazoned on the torii at its entry was recognizable enough.

No, it was this creepy darkness waiting for him in the basement that got him a little unsettled. There were only four people in the entire room: Fugaku, two elders, and him. The first three were already seated solemnly on mats along the north wall, leaving him to kneel before them on bare floor between the two torches. The gloomy atmosphere was just begging for Itachi's persona to reemerge.

"Itachi." Fugaku's face was an unreadable mask as flames flickered ominously in front of him. "Do you know why you've been summoned here?"

Despite being alone on his side of the dark room, Naruto managed to keep a blank face of his own as he replied tonelessly, "You wish for me to explain my unauthorized dealings with Madara."

"No." Fugaku sighed as he briefly glanced at the two other clansmen sitting on either side of him. "You've already sent your clone to give us an explanation yesterday. We understand your… predicament. It was either you pretending to reach a deal with the traitor, or him attacking us with no warning whatsoever."

"…" Naruto nonetheless lowered his head, shifting his palms from the laps to the floor in subtle apology.

"Indeed," a gravel voice chimed from the left in at this point, "I believe we are more concerned with on how you obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan, Itachi-kun."

"So, you are suspicious of me?"

"Yes, brat."

"Look, Itachi, if you betray the clan…"

Another man's memories brought dual waves of simmering heat behind his eyes—one from nearly two years ago, one from ten years ago. Fighting to keep the accursed chakra at bay, Naruto found himself repeating words that this same body had once spoken, "It is not me who killed Shisui…"

"To obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan, you must kill your closest friend," another wispy voice intoned. "That is what the clan records stated, and what all adult clan members know. Or do you have another friend we are unaware of?"

Naruto's hands pressed more forcefully on the wooden floor. "I did not kill anyone. Shisui was just… at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Madara silenced him after he overheard our conversation by Nakano River that night. Shisui was not meant to know he had been… discarded by Madara."

It was so hard to go against Itachi's nature, to reveal things with such frankness to near-strangers—but Naruto persisted. He did not want to become a carbon copy of Uchiha Itachi; he might have to go by that name from now on, but Naruto was determined to be his own person. He just needed more time for a character change to appear natural.

Looking up at the three men before him, Naruto still felt Itachi's rare spike of rage leaking through his words. "You could accuse me of having led to Shisui's death…but I would never willingly kill him."

"And your Mangekyou Sharingan?" the white-haired elder with that gravel voice seemed unmoved.

Weariness overtook Naruto's anger then. "It activated upon my… guilt. I do feel responsible for being unable to prevent Shisui's death. And he was my best friend."

"You are claiming Shisui was in contact with Madara as well?" Fugaku's voice broke a staring contest between Naruto and the gravel-voiced elder.

"Yes." Naruto still stared at the man, not at all bothered by the elder's Sharingan. "One month before his death, Shisui was instructed to kill me to activate his own Mangekyou Sharingan. He refused."

There were more to the story, but he did not think it would be necessary to go into the details. Shisui was dead; what he would have done… was never done.

"Activate yours now," the wispy-voiced elder commanded from the right.

"…" Naruto hesitated for just a second. Using this power—it reminded both Itachi and him too painfully of their failures. But he had to rebuild the clan's trust in Itachi, and Naruto did not think relationships built on a foundation of falsehood and concealment would last for long.

So relaxing the jaws he had been unconsciously clenching, Naruto released the heat behind his eyes.

"This is your third mutated iris pattern," Fugaku observed after activating his own Sharingan—probably to check for possible illusions.

'Third…' Naruto carefully bit the inside of his mouth. So he did gain the Eien no Mangekyou Sharingan? He supposed he should be happy for Itachi, for how the Akatsuki member had succeeded in achieving his last and final goal—but Naruto could only feel sadness. Sadness for a man who had given up his entire existence just to grant this damned, bloody power to another!

'He didn't even have a guarantee for whether or not I could defeat Madara with this.' Naruto closed his eyes, cutting off the chakra flow to them. He did not mind the pain… it was nothing he could not deal with. No, he was simply conserving his chakra. Naruto could bear with Itachi's near-reflexive paranoia—if it meant he could survive longer. And Naruto had every intention of surviving Madara.

Blinking open his eyes, Naruto watched as Fugaku shared a long look with the gravel-voiced elder.

"Matsuku-san," the clan head finally turned to speak with the second elder. "Would you like to take over?"

Said man nodded as he spoke to Naruto directly, "Itachi-kun, I suppose you must have discovered the curse that was placed on the Mangekyou Sharingan?"

"Yes, it degrades the user's eyesight, honored elder." Naruto wondered where this was going.

Matsuku's lips twisted into a brittle smile. "Correct. And do you know how you could prevent the deterioration?"

"You could simply avoid its usage," Naruto stopped himself before his reply could become flippant. "Or you could take the eyes of another Uchiha, preferably your sibling, who also bears the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"Correct, again." Matsuku's smile deepened. "Did Madara tell you that? I believe we removed all records of the second approach."

"…" Naruto nodded. That discovery had been enough to make a disgusted eleven-year-old ANBU lose all respect of his clan.

"Avoiding its usage…" The smile disappeared from Matsuku's face. "Easier said than done. What's the use of a power if we don't use it? The temptation was always there…"

The elder's gaze fell on Naruto. Only then, did Naruto realize that the other man's irises were strangely blank. "I should know. I was once a user."

"…" Naruto felt his eyes widening ever so slightly, but he waited patiently for the elder to continue.

And the man did. "There were once ten of us: three who awoke the Mangekyou Sharingan by killing their own friends—like Madara and Izuna, seven who awoke it by indirectly causing our closest associates' death—like you."

This was a lost page of history, even for Itachi! Naruto found himself holding his breath as he clung to every new word.

The elder did not disappoint him. "The seven of us eventually hunt down the other three for murdering fellow clansmen; we lost two members through that process. The remaining five of us later drove out Madara, especially after the man took his own brother's eyes to make his Mangekyou Sharingan permanent; we lost four more members that way… I am the only one left."

"But Madara said his brother offered them up freely," Naruto felt compelled to bring up an issue which had bothered Itachi for the longest time.

"History is written by victors," Matsuku shrugged. "Izuna died soon after the eye transfer. I was too young to remember then, but my seniors apparently were unable to verify with him in time. Madara had been practical enough of a leader during wartime, so we were content to follow him until he sought to break our hard-won peace. After that, we had to come up with a justifiable reason to remove him from our clan's leadership."

"So you are not entirely above reproach yourself." Naruto narrowed his eyes, though he was not truly surprised to hear the elder admitting to a possibly false accusation. Even with Itachi's memories, Naruto still found it a little hard to accept these Uchiha's extreme methods. Was the end really enough to justify the means for them?

"Goodness, no." Matsuku, at least, was honest enough not to claim innocence. "But if Madara forgot that the clan includes more than him, we could not sit back while he brought our endangered numbers into his personal conflict with the Shodai. A true leader is not just about raw power."

"Have you regretted your decision?" Thinking of the Uchiha clan's plans for revolt, Naruto asked softly.

"No," the elder wheezed. "The clan would have continued to survive long and well… had Madara not brought us back into the village's suspicion with the Kyuubi stunt he pulled."

"…" Naruto wondered how come Itachi had no memory of… killing this former holder of the Mangekyou Sharingan. If the man had been able to achieve that level of their bloodline limit, he might have been a tricky opponent for Itachi even with the blindness. Who knew if the elder had not developed some kind of technique to exploit these eyes' weaknesses?

Perhaps he was among those that Madara took care of personally? That seemed likely, particularly if what the elder said about opposing the former clan leader had been true.

"And now, you're the first one to achieve this forbidden level after nearly fifty years." Matsuku spoke again, this time sounding wistful. "I hunted down all the rebellious youngsters that tried to achieve it through murder in the early years, but using these eyes took their toll. And now, I hear you've even attained three forms of Mangekyou Sharingan?"

Naruto glanced at Fugaku, who gave him a tight smile. Wondering briefly if that was supposed to be an encouragement, Naruto replied gravely, "Only two for me, specifically. I could never kill Sasuke; so I created and destroyed a brother personality. My current Mangekyou Sharingan is a combination of our two forms."

It was as close as Naruto would ever get to the truth. He shared Itachi's desire to end this cursed form of the Uchiha bloodline with himself. If nothing else, Naruto respected the other ninja's wish to steer his clan clear of its wretched past.

The flames flickered. No one spoke.

"You've got a smart kid there, Fugaku-sama," the gravel-voiced elder eventually broke the silence, "and a damn crazy one, too."

Fugaku could only smile uneasily.

"So yours is a permanent Mangekyou Sharingan," Matsuku cackled. "My, you might be the clan's hope after all."

Naruto wisely made no reply, and simply looked to Itachi's father in silent inquiry.

Fugaku seemed to have caught his message. "This would explain how you could drive away Madara then. You have the same kind of eyes as him."

Thinking back to his fight from yesterday, Naruto slowly shook his head. He was confident, but not conceited; besides, he was still undecided on whether or not to connect with Itachi's memories on a deeper level. "I was lucky. Madara had not expected my final two doujutsu. He assumed I possess three techniques as a holder of normal Mangekyou Sharingan, and did not expect those from my alternate personality. He never thought it was possible for me to make my mutated eyes permanent without killing Sasuke."

"I believe," Matsuku's wispy voice sounded even frailer at that moment, "you are closer to bringing down that traitor than we ever were. The permanent form of Mangekyou Sharingan gave Madara a new power that made him all but invincible in battle—a power that you have the potential of gaining."

"And you might just be closer to becoming the Hokage than Madara ever was," the other elder added, his expression showing a grudging respect that had Naruto abashed; Itachi had been the one to come up with this insane plan, not him. "You see this entire village as your clan… something I think those Senju tree-huggers favored."

Naruto wondered if he should make a protest to this, as an 'Uchiha'… but Fugaku saved him from the awkward moment. "You would make a better clan head than Madara ever was too. Once the others come out of their natural fear for the Mangekyou Sharingan, I think they would also remember how you have saved them from Madara."

Completely uncomfortable with praises, Naruto wanted to shift the focus of this conversation to topics he was more concerned with—such as the Hokage's reaction, his past self's safety, and the clan's losses… among other things. But before he could voice his questions, someone knocked on their ceiling.

Frowning, Fugaku nonetheless acknowledged the knock. "Yes?"

A muffled voice came through a small and well-hidding crack, "Hokage-sama has made a village-wide summon for all off-duty ANBU, citing Level 1 Emergency. It is our belief that this is targeted at Itachi-sama!"

A/N: Thanks for everyone's valuable feedback. Much appreciated!

Someone mentioned the hypothetical circumstances of Shisui's death were a bit confusing, so hopefully this chapter clears it up more. Not sure what I can do about the doujutsu battle a few chapters back though—any suggestion on how I can make it less 'boring'?