Chapter 21

"Black the Sun"

The moon was barely a sliver of white light through the black canopy of trees, casting the two shinobi in a darkness they'd grown well accustomed to. Tomorrow night would be even darker still, they knew, as the new moon would blacken the land. The timing was rather ideal.

The male shinobi signaled for his companion to come closer as they leapt through the trees, then nodded south, eyes glinting red with the movement. She nodded back and they altered their route slightly to head towards the spot he'd found.

They landed silently in the grass next to a large willow tree – the only willow they'd seen in the forest so far. The space next to the tree was more than large enough for two sleeping bags and a small fire, and the tree was distinctive enough for either of them that they'd be able to find their way back. The red-eyed shinobi began to walk a perimeter, and she listened to the near-silent rustle as he performed the hand seals for a familiar genjutsu. They'd be hidden from any possible (and unlikely) passerby.

When he returned, nodding to signify the success of his jutsu, the two shinobi removed their ANBU masks, leaning them against the twisted base of the willow tree. The black-haired shinobi gathered wood for the fire, lighting it with a Katon jutsu, his red eyes now black; his brunette companion set up their sleeping bags while he worked.

Haru sat down on top of her sleeping bag with a quiet sigh, staring into the glowing embers of the fire. Itachi sat down next to her, joining her on her sleeping bag instead of going to his own. They sat in pensive silence for a long while. The air was heavy around them.

"We should discuss a plan," she said quietly. She felt small sitting next to him.

He only nodded, his eyes on the fire. They had completed a week-long mission in three days' time, just as they'd planned to – it wasn't an easy mission, but they'd fought and trained together too many times for a retrieval mission like this one to be truly difficult for them. The Hokage had known this, too.

Haru wrapped her arms around her knees as she watched the flames dance. "Tomorrow night," she whispered.

Itachi finally moved his gaze from the fire to her. She didn't have to meet his eyes to know his brow had creased. "Not together," he argued.

Her mouth twisted. "No, I guess not," she said quietly. "…It just depends…"

He shook his head at her. "I am to exile myself," he said. The lack of emotion in his tone betrayed his excess of feeling. "But you… the nature of your mission grants you a better option than that. And that's an option you must take. If both of our missions were to happen on the same night, either I would be blamed for both and you would be sent to kill me, or all would be suspicious of your involvement and you would likely be disconnected from Konoha, the same as me."

Her hands clenched on her forearms. She looked at him at last, meeting his solemn gaze with her own. "Danzou will likely send someone to kill you anyways, Itachi. Better me than anyone else. I could… I could try to—"

"No," he said with finality. He looked infinitely older than thirteen. "There will have to be a few days in between. Besides… given how it all must be done, it wouldn't make sense any other way."

She moved her gaze back to the fire. He was right. He was always right – but this time she wished with all her being that he didn't have to be. The only way to kill a Tanade was all at once – so they had no chance of reversing the damage – and there was no justifying why a shinobi might massacre one clan and then merely set another aflame. The motives had to be different to minimize the chance of suspicion. "I'll finish my mission first," she said, barely above a whisper.

Itachi continued to stare at her. This time, she could feel his concern radiating off of him, as if he wished for no more than to hold her, to comfort her somehow.

"If the Uchiha are killed first," she said, "there will be an uprising among the Tanade, and their numbers will overwhelm – they'll use the festival as an excuse to make a battle plan of their own, leaving the Uchiha's plan behind. But if the Tanade are killed first… the Uchiha will have their suspicions, but they are less likely to act before the planned coup. That'll make it easier for you."

He considered her for a moment, then nodded, finding her plan sound. "…I can use it as a catalyst. Say it inspired me to act."

Her nails began to dig into her arms, but she nodded in agreement. She was trying hard to push thoughts out of her mind – doubts, wishes, hopes, desperations. It was far too late for this to go any other way than the way they would push it. The alternative was unacceptable.

"…There are children," he whispered, and her gaze swung to him again even as he stared only into the fire. There was pain breaking through his blank mask, and it made her want to cry, to smash her own mask into thousands of pieces. "Your clan. A dozen have been born since we have."

She swallowed around the knot in her throat. "You've seen them," she replied. "The way we're all trained. What we're taught to believe. I didn't even get the worst of it, Itachi – after me, after the War, they were raised to distrust the village, and those raised outside of Konoha were taught to hate it. Those children would volunteer to be on the frontlines for a coup."

"…They don't know any better," he replied. If she didn't know him as well as she did she would have thought he was begging. But even despite the pain bleeding into his features, she knew he would have convinced her to go through with it no matter what. Thousands would die if they didn't, hundreds of thousands, war would break out – only two hundred would die if they did.

All the same, she couldn't keep the tears from spilling any longer, no matter how calm she thought she'd been. "My clan is a stranger to me," she whispered, and closed her eyes to all of it. "But… Itachi… what about Sasuke?"

She heard him move beside her, and she opened her eyes. He'd run his hands over his face, breathing deeply, before returning to his perfect posture. There were tears in his eyes as well. "I can't."

She stared at him.

"…Sasuke is innocent," he whispered. "He knows nothing. I can't…"

He couldn't even say the words. In a rush, she stood from the sleeping bag, whirled at the willow tree behind them and lashed out in a muffled yell. She prayed to any gods above that all of this would just end, that the Uchiha unmake their plans, that the Tanade remove themselves from their hyper-conservative beliefs and undo all the horrors. She wished the Elders had found another way, anything but this. That they'd found time. That there was any time left to prevent all this violence.

But that was not their reality. They had run out of time for any other options, and kami, had they tried. The reality was that the date had been set for Uchiha's coup and that Tanade would follow them into the fray. The reality was that if the coup succeeded and the Sandaime was assassinated, Konoha's enemies would take advantage of the chaos to attack. The reality was war.

And the solution left to these two teenagers was familial genocide. Exile for Itachi. A lifetime of lies. Pretending innocence, for Haru. Lies and more lies. Covering up Konoha's dark secrets and silenced violence. Indefinite separation from each other. And for Sasuke – to believe his brother had massacred their clan in cold blood—

Before she could fall against the bark of the tree, Itachi was already at her side, his arms around her firmly to keep her standing. He guided her away from the tree and back towards the fire, where he lifted her scuffed hands to the light once they were seated again on her sleeping bag. The proximity was comforting, but she refused to heal the small scratches on her knuckles like he was implicitly asking her to do. He lowered their hands and kept his gaze steady on hers. Tear-filled eyes met the same.

"You will have to do it alone," he said bluntly. He had to finish the conversation now. Get it out of the way. They needed to prepare. "Go in during the new moon tomorrow night and make sure you're not seen. Sneak back to camp, and at dawn, once the smoke is rising high enough in the light, you'll go back and make sure they see you entering."

She nodded. She would pretend to have seen the smoke and run ahead of him on their way back from the mission, and then she would mourn where they all could see her. She could drop the mask temporarily to convince them.

"I won't be able to see you again after that, I don't think," he continued, and she felt her chest tighten. "You'll be mourning, and they will expect you to want privacy, even from me. And the more I isolate myself, the more my actions will make sense to them."

She remained silent.

He squeezed her hands – he hadn't let go. "Once I've become missing-nin, I'll need you as my connection to the village," he said, almost comfortingly despite the similar emotions to hers that his voice was betraying. "You and I will threaten the Elders to keep Sasuke safe, and… and to make sure none of them ever tell Sasuke the truth. I'll threaten them myself to keep you safe as well."

"Wait— what do you mean? About Sasuke?"

His hands shifted around hers, cradling her minor wounds. "The entire village must believe I killed my clan for power, not as an order," he said patiently. "That includes Sasuke. He can't keep that secret himself. And besides – he should – no, he needs to believe in what Konoha was founded upon. He needs to believe that peace among shinobi is possible. Even if he must hate me in order to do so. It's the only way for me to give him a chance to pursue a happy life."

"Happy?" she gasped, clenching her hands around his too hard. "Hatred is not happiness—"

"It's either hatred for me, or hatred for the village. I will not bring him into exile with me, I can't leave him in the village and expect him to keep my secret, and I won't let him grow up believing Konoha evil. I can handle his hatred, and I know his hatred for me can eventually be sated. This is the only way."

"But if you just explained—"

Itachi shook his head, and his eyes were overcome with sadness, as if he could no longer hold it back. As if every one of her arguments were ones he'd fought with himself over already. "He's too young," he whispered. "Haru… I need you to promise me you will help me with this. That you'll help my brother… after this is over."

She held back a sob. It was too late – and he was right; this was the only option left. "Okay," she said. "I promise."

He nodded. Their hands relaxed.

"We… Can we…" she whispered, unsure how to say it.

He listened patiently still, his eyes gentle. The masks were long gone.

"…We should say our goodbyes," she breathed. "In case something happens, and we never see each other again."

"But we will," he said. "I told you I'll need you."

She shook her head. "I know," she pleaded quietly, "but you'll be out in the middle of nowhere, a missing-nin – I'll still be ANBU – anything could happen between this mission and the next. …I want to say our goodbyes now, even if I'll still see you in the morning, just so I can know we said them."

"…Very well," he muttered. He searched her eyes for a long moment, listening as she forced her breathing to go back to normal. "I…"

But suddenly her shoulder was smothering his words. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, her arms wrapped around him. He held her back, forcing himself to relax into one of the few embraces he'd known in his thirteen years.

She was whispering against his neck, her arms pulling him ever closer.

"…I'll always love you."

The words were reverberating in her head, in his voice as well as hers. She heard too much at once. She couldn't tell where his voice ended and hers began.

Everything was spiraling in blacks and reds, and then suddenly everything ended too quickly.

Tree branches swayed gently above her, rays of sunlight shifting back and forth through the leaves. Her head was aching. It took her a moment to remember why.

She sat up quickly, regretting it instantly as the pressure in her head increased. She winced and drew healing chakra into her hand before placing it over her forehead, relieving the pain without risking her kekkei genkai making it worse. When the throbbing faded she looked about her surroundings.

There was no sign of Itachi's clone.

She stood and looked to the sun's position – only a few hours had passed since he'd forced her into his Tsukuyomi. She felt a chill run down her spine. Why had he ended the genjutsu there? Where had his clone gone? And why did she no longer feel the pull from her scroll…?

There was no chakra anywhere around her. If she had to guess, he must have released his clone jutsu. If he was trying to distract her—

With a surge of adrenaline, she leapt up into the tree line, jumping to the top of the tallest tree near her. She could activate Shitai Sacchi again, use her vantage point to figure out which direction to head in – perhaps Kakashi and his team had made it there before her, perhaps they had succeeded—

It became clear very quickly that she wouldn't need her Keigan to know where to head. Her breath caught in her throat. She knew instinctually just from the sight of it what it had to mean.

There was a thick column of smoke rising in the distance, and beneath it, black fire just on the edge of the horizon. Amaterasu.

A/N: I'm so sorry for the delay on this one! It was a crazy weekend; I swear I wasn't trying to drag out the cliffhanger lol. And then here I leave you with another one...

Thank you so much for reading, as always. I'm so glad you're all enjoying the story so far!