Chapter 21

A/N: Warning: this chapter contains descriptions of violent content that some readers may find disturbing. If there are any readers who are worried about this, then I can provide a version of this chapter with the nasty cut out on request.

For everyone else, you can't say I didn't warn you...

...

As Itachi moved swiftly towards the Academy, or, more importantly, away from his counsellor, his Hokage, and his mother (and didn't that sound like a congregation from a vision of well-meaning hell?) he did his best to suppress the urge to curse aloud.

They knew.

He felt fairly sure that they had all bought his cover-story, of the genjutsu being what had induced his Sharingan to evolve into the Mangekyo form, but he couldn't be certain. Thankfully, his mother had corroborated his story, but Itachi wondered how much of that was because she could think of no better explanation for how her son could have attained it.

Since Mikoto was the resident expert, the Hokage and Sho had taken her at her word that his eyes had changed due to the trauma of the Mangekyo, but Itachi knew by now that Sho at least was uncannily good at figuring out when he was holding back information or telling outright lies. He only hoped that the combination of her lack of familiarity with his Clan's doujutsu and the fact that here, the truth, that he really did remember killing his parents and many others of the clan would be enough to muddy her perception and let his technical truth through.

It was fortunate that he was a genius with experience with living under the intense and constant scrutiny of other violent geniuses just waiting for a chink to appear in his armour, otherwise the fact that he was surrounded by extremely intelligent people watching his every move might have been unnerving, rather than oddly familiar.

(The fact that these people actually cared about Itachi's wellbeing was not so familiar, but Itachi was not quite broken enough to not know that that was pretty depressing and not a little pathetic, so he did his best to ignore it.)

The obfuscation to cover the origin of his Mangekyo Sharingan wasn't the worst of it though.

Naturally, the second Itachi was around the corner and out of sight, he had created a clone, which stealthily crept back to listen to what they were saying about him.

It wasn't paranoia if he knew for a fact they would be talking about him.

And it was just as well he had.

They knew.

Itachi was grudgingly impressed. The only one to figure out his… philosophy in his previous life had been Pein, and mostly because Pein himself shared it.

Well, maybe Madara had figured it out. It was hard to know.

(It was always hard to tell with Madara, or "Tobi" as he preferred to be known to the majority of Akatsuki. He was crazier than a bag of rabid foxes, and twice as wily.)

He supposed it just went to show that Sho truly was one of the best in her field.

When his clone had discreetly dispersed itself to alert him of what it had overheard, Itachi had nearly tripped over.

Naturally he was going to pretend that he had never overheard them talking, and wait to react when he was eventually confronted, but now he was going to have to figure out how to react.

He was not sure how he felt about one of his closest-kept secrets being divulged like that.

Maybe he should have felt betrayed, but really…

Itachi was almost grateful to Sho.

Maybe… maybe he would be able to refuse assassination missions this time around.

Itachi hated assassination missions. He was appallingly good at them, and because of the Sharingan, he remembered the hardest ones in full technicolour, high definition, surround-sound detail.

(Itachi had once heard those words to describe a cinema experience, when he had snuck into a late session in the Land of Snow. They had stuck with him because it described the difference in qualities of his Sharingan vs non-Sharingan memories almost perfectly.)

Ironically, one of the reasons why Itachi had trained so hard to become so good so early had been so that he wouldn't need the Sharingan. It meant that he had fewer horrific memories stored up than he might otherwise, but on the other hand, his "Just Like Hatake" skill level had just caused him to be sent on more assassinations, and other such bloody ANBU work.

Oh, and it had caused him to catch the interest of Danzo and Madara, (he always had his father's attention, and would have no matter what his skill level was) which had led to the course of his last life, being forced to murder his family for the sake of the village, and joining Akatsuki… and then he had been forced to use the Sharingan constantly, just to stay alive, and to keep his edge over his fellow missing-nin, and then his sight had started to deteriorate through over-use, so all that training to not use the Sharingan had been really fortunate after all…

There were reasons why Itachi had been almost relieved to die at Sasuke's hands.

Sometimes his life truly resembled an extremely cruel joke.

As he approached the Academy, ignoring the occasional stares he was gathering, Itachi quickly shoved aside such thoughts. He would worry about what being outed as a pacifist that had the Mangekyo Sharingan meant later.

Right now, he had Sasuke to pick up. Unless Itachi compartmentalised thoroughly, Sasuke would immediately realise that his big brother was troubled, and would worry.

Itachi didn't like it when Sasuke worried.

The more he saw of this cheerful Sasuke who reminded Itachi so much of the Sasuke he had known before the Massacre, the more Itachi realised just how badly he had damaged his little brother in his quest to make him stronger. He had known, intellectually, before that he probably was the reason for his foolish little brother being the way he was- a ruthless, cold avenger who would spit in the face of any ally who wasn't willing or able to help him on the way to power… but to see the comparison with this Sasuke…

Itachi had to admit it to himself.

He had fucked up, and fucked up royally where Sasuke was concerned in the other world.

Thirteen year old him might have been a genius shinobi, but when it came to emotional intelligence, and knowing how to make his little brother into a future worthy foe capable of taking him out…

He had apparently been a drooling idiot.

Itachi liked to think that he had gotten a little better since then.

But suffice to say, now that he had a second chance, there was no way he would ever do anything to deliberately hurt Sasuke again.

And he would brutally maim anyone else who did.

(Except for training purposes. Training purposes didn't count. However, if Itachi were not satisfied as to their reasoning for doing such a thing, then there would be words. And a few things that were significantly sharper than words, but then, no sensible ninja should expect otherwise.)

It was just as he rounded the corner, that suddenly, he heard shouts.

Itachi switched immediately into alertness, and saw to his horror (and not a little exasperation) that the commotion was Mizuki, who appeared to have snagged himself some random child as a hostage, and was speedily making his way out of the Academy. Itachi noted that the child was conscious, and distressed, but not visibly injured. In fact, the child was struggling wildly and shrieking their head off (good kid, remembering that lesson one was ensuring that help knew to come), until Mizuki hissed something into the child's, ear, and they stilled, eyes wide with fright.

Honestly. What useless clod had tipped the traitor off? If it had been someone under Itachi's command, he would have hung them up by their ankles from a tree outside a public bathhouse, and genjutsued them into thinking they were a randy bat.

(When you were captain of an ANBU squad and the teammate closest in age to you was seven years your senior, a certain level of creativity tended to help keep discipline better than merely being able to beat seven shades of shit out of them, if only because funny revenge…no, discipline, honestly, he meant discipline… tended to entertain the others and get them onside (and wary, also very wary). It was something that Kakashi had quietly passed onto his "cute little kohai" and Itachi had found it to be one of the more useful things he had ever been taught. )

Itachi considered his options, and then Mizuki paused for a split-second, checking to see if anyone outside the Academy had been alerted yet before he picked a direction to start running in.

That was all the time Itachi needed.

A quick kawarimi, and instead of a small child over his shoulder, Mizuki had Itachi's unexpected weight knocking them both to the ground.

Before Mizuki could figure out what had happened, Itachi was sitting on his back with the business end of a kunai pressed to the base of the traitor's neck, knees firmly planted on Mizuki's triceps.

"Move, and this goes directly into your spinal cord," Itachi stated in a purposefully bland, quiet tone (it wouldn't do for the children to hear what he was about to say). "I cannot possibly miss at this range."

He could feel Mizuki considering it anyway, through the tensing of his muscles and so Itachi continued as though conversationally, and started to weave a mild genjutsu in with his words, to make the traitor more suggestible, and more docile. Fear was a useful thing for him to make the traitor feel. Outright panic might be a pain. "I hear if the spinal cord is severed, it's next to impossible for anyone without, say, Tsunade-hime's skill as a medic-nin to fix it. And if I were to do it here, then, you would be probably be able to breathe unassisted. Probably." Mizuki let out his breath in a slight hiss, but Itachi kept going, cementing the genjutsu and pressing the kunai into the skin of Mizuki's neck so that a bead of blood began to well up.

"Naturally, you would lose all function in your legs, and most if not all of the function in your arms. Oh, and naturally you would have no control of your bowels. Ibiki might be a little annoyed that you wouldn't be able to feel everything that he intended to do to you, but then, Ibiki has never needed something as simple as mere pain to extract information from someone. He has more finesse than that. On the other hand, I once heard a story of a Mist-nin who flayed the skin from a man's feet whilst he watched. If I pushed this kunai in just a little harder…" he very slightly increased the pressure. "Then I could do it and you wouldn't feel a thing. The first time, it would be a genjutsu. Maybe also the second time. But the third time? When I apply a little flame, and you smell something cooking, and you're starving, because they haven't fed you in days, and you wonder what that delicious smell is, and then the blindfold comes off and you realise that you're salivating over your own barbequed toes…" Itachi paused for effect. "If you struggle, I'll shove this kunai in just far enough to ensure you don't die, and then ask Ibiki if I can experiment."

The combination of Itachi's words and the genjutsu worked, and Mizuki broke. "No! Please, no. Ohkamiohkamiohkami I'LL COME QUIETLY I SWEAR!" he sobbed.

Itachi looked up, and saw that he had an audience. Several of them had expressions on their faces that made it clear he might have been whispering, but he had been heard loud and clear. Those who weren't experienced ninja who had been able to discern his words were looking distinctly green.

Those who were experienced ninja were looking at Itachi like they had never seen him before.

"He threatened the children," Itachi said, offering the explanation none of them were asking for.

Several faces relaxed somewhat, and he even got a few approving nods.

(Surprisingly, one of those nodding was a civilian woman with a headscarf, leaning heavily on a crutch. Itachi hoped that they knew that he seriously would never actually do that to a person. It was inhumane for one thing, and downright messy. Kisame might have told the story of his old comrades with a respectful gleam in his eye, but Itachi had always found such butchery plebeian. Psychological torture was a lot more civilised, and more effective in the long run, he found. You could only stab someone so many times before they simply bled out. On the other hand, even without resorting to Tsukiyomi, he could make someone think they had been stabbed a thousand times and they would still be there awaiting his patience.)

"…"

Itachi felt a gaze, and looked up to see two ANBU staring at him in a silent but emphatic fashion.

"Well, are you going to take him off my hands, or what?" he asked, tone carefully polite.

Moments later, Itachi was watching the ANBU leave over the rooftops, Mizuki dangling between them.

He noted a stench in the air, and looked down.

Hmm. It seemed that he had caused the traitor to piss himself.

Itachi discreetly stepped away from the mess, and turned to see that the child he had switched places with was being currently held tightly by a weeping, obviously civilian parent.

Oh good. The kid was probably fine then. Otherwise at least one of the ninja in the area would have dragged them both to the hospital.

"Whoo Aniki! Yeah! That's my big brother!"

"Yay Itachi-niisan!"

Itachi turned to see Sasuke and his little friends jumping up and down and cheering.

Huh.

What was this oddly warm feeling in his chest?

Oh. Right. This.

This was why he had actually wanted to become a ninja.

To protect people.

"…Itachi?" Hana stepped out of the crowd.

Uh oh.

She looked perturbed.

Maybe his last act had been a little out of character for the Itachi he had replaced?

"Care to explain what the fuck that was?" she asked him in a carefully calm voice.

"What?" Itachi replied, scratching the back of his head. "I've been training."